


Through the Black

by clairevergreen



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Community: HPFT, Drama, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Marauders' Era, Romance, Secret Relationship, Sensitive Topic/Issue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-11
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-06-01 17:47:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6529918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clairevergreen/pseuds/clairevergreen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
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  <p>    <em>Banner by accio! @ the-dark-arts.net</em><br/></p>
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  <p>She may have been a Ravenclaw, but Julianne Meyers was anything but the model student. Between Quidditch, failing Transfiguration, and dealing with unofficial family members, it seemed like everything was already as hard as it could get. But she could not have been more wrong…</p>
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	1. Trying to Get Ahead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So exactly how hard is this spell? Is it ‘study a couple extra hours a night to get it not horrible’ hard or is it ‘Madame Pince kicks you out of the library for the fifth time that week because you feel asleep again trying to practice it’ hard?”

“In just a few short months you will all be sitting your O.W.L.s. Now, you cannot expect to pass them without serious application, practice, and study. There is absolutely no reason that any of you should not be able to achieve an O.W.L in this class so long as you put in the work,” Professor McGonagall lectured as she walked back and forth in front of her fifth year class. Julianne groaned as she kept talking, staring down at the blank piece of parchment she had in front of her to take notes. Ivory elbowed her in the side as she kept her eyes trained on the professor. “Today we will be practicing Vanishing Spells. These are much easier than Conjuring Spells, which you would not be asked to attempt until N.E.W.T level, but they are still some of the most difficult spells you will be tested on in your O.W.L.s.”

“Oh, joy,” Julianne mumbled as McGonagall moved to the board to explain the exact movements and incantation of the spell. Ivory frowned at her parchment as she started copying down all of the notes that the professor started writing. 

“You know, if you actually paid attention in class this year, you might be able to pass,” she whispered out of the corner of her mouth. Julianne glared at her friend as she started to slowly copy down what was being written, several steps behind.

“I did pass thank you very much,” she said, already confused as to what McGonagall was saying. “I got an Acceptable.”

“Barely,” a voice behind her said. She whipped around, her blonde ponytail almost hitting Ivory in the face.

“Shut it, James,” she snapped as he started to smile. “No one-”

“Is there a problem, Miss Meyers?” Julianne quickly turned back around to see Professor McGonagall staring at her while most of the class started turning to look at her.

“No, ma’am,” she said, her face starting to turn red. Behind her, James and Sirius—who was sitting next to him—started snickering. Ivory shook her head slightly as the professor raised her eyebrow.

“Very well,” she continued, pulling out a box from behind her desk. “If you would be so kind as to pass out these to class, then.” Julianne got up and shot a glare at the two boys before making her way to the front of class and taking the box from McGonagall without making eye contact. She glanced in the box as she made her way to the first desk and internally groaned as she very gingerly reached in and grabbed a snail to place on each student’s desk. She made her way through the rows and tried to listen to the lecture at the same time, ignoring James and Sirius when she reached their desk. 

“So exactly how hard is this spell?” Julianne asked as she sat back down after McGonagall had set them loose to attempt to vanish their snails. “Is it ‘study a couple extra hours a night to get it not horrible’ hard or is it ‘Madame Pince kicks you out of the library for the fifth time that week because you feel asleep again trying to practice it’ hard?” Ivory waved her wand and mumbled the spell under her breath. Her snail just sat there sadly with nothing even remotely vanished about it. Julianne glanced around the room and saw that no one was having any success with it and sighed. “Second one it is then,” she said, picking up her wand.

It went on like that for the rest of class. By the end, Julianne hadn’t even been able to get her snail to look paler. Ivory’s looked like it had slightly less color than before and when she looked around the room, Remus’s looked much the same way. As per usual, James had managed to vanish his after only two attempts with Sirius getting it not long after, earning them 10 points each for Gryffindor and no homework for the next class. Everyone else was instructed to practice for next class and be ready to try again.

“I am definitely not passing Transfiguration this year,” Julianne said as she and Ivory walked out of the classroom. “Last year was hard enough and I barely passed.”

“I’m sure it won’t be that hard,” Ivory said, looking down at her bag as she tried to tuck her notes somewhere they wouldn’t get destroyed. 

“Easy for you to say!” Julianne said, throwing her hands up in the air and almost hitting a second year in the head as she did so. “You’re pretty much one of best in class behind James and Sirius.”

“You rang?” James said, popping up beside her and causing her to jump. 

“Why don’t you have one of them tutor you then?” Ivory suggested as Sirius and Peter appeared on her right. James’ eyes widened and he started shaking his head frantically.

“Never again,” he said, backing away. “Not after last time.”

Julianne rolled her eyes while Sirius and Peter just laughed. “It was not as bad as you made it seem,” she defended as Ivory looked completely confused. 

“You threw the textbook at me!” James accused. 

Julianne waved her hand in dismissal. “It barely even touched you,” she said. “Besides, you were an awful teacher.” She paused for a second and then continued in her best James impression, “You just, I don’t know, it just happens.” She waved her hands around a bit as she talked which caused Sirius and Peter to laugh even more. 

“She’s got you there,” Sirius said to his friend. James huffed as they reached the doors to the Great Hall.

“She still threw a book at my face,” he mumbled as he walked in. 

Ivory glanced back as Julianne turned to go past the Great Hall. “Aren’t you coming?” Julianne shook her head.

“I already have that Potions essay to finish and it’s only Wednesday,” she said. “Probably shouldn’t start off term behind.” She gave her friends a wave before turning to go to the library. 

“Hey, Julianne!” She turned and saw Sirius walking towards her. “Mind if I join you?” Julianne raised her eyebrow as they started walking towards the library.

“Sirius Black, going to the library?” she teased. “What has this world come to?”

He smirked as he said, “All this genius doesn’t just come naturally you know.” 

Julianne laughed as they fell into a conversation, weaving through students to get to the library. She was just explaining the amount of homework she had put off for that day when they turned a corner and almost ran straight into a group of Ravenclaws who were leaning against the wall talking.

“Julianne,” one of them said, pushing off the wall to catch her attention. She stopped and turned, having to look up slightly to see who it was.

“Hey, Cameron,” she said, realizing that the group was mostly made up of the Quidditch team. Cameron nodded slightly, throwing a quick glance at Sirius who had stopped with her.

“I haven’t been able to catch you yet, but tryouts are going to be this Saturday at noon, since we need a new Beater and Chaser,” he said. “I want the whole team there, so make sure you aren’t late.” Julianne smiled and gave him a mock salute.

“Yes, sir,” she said and started to walk off towards the library.

“So you made Captain after Lewis left?” Sirius asked, causing Julianne to stop and turn back towards the boys. Cameron straightened up, adopting an almost defensive posture. 

“That’s right,” he said, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes. “And how’s the Gryffindor team doing? Sanders still captaining them to defeat?’

Julianne jumped in when Sirius went to take a step closer. “Ok, I think that’s enough Quidditch talk for one day,” she said, grabbing Sirius’s arm as Cameron’s friends took a step closer. “I’ll see you guys at tryouts then.” She pulled on Sirius’s arm until he started following her back down the corridor to the library.

“Cocky bastard,” Sirius muttered as they finally made it to the library.

“You are the one who started it,” Julianne shot back as they set their bags down on a table. 

“All I did was ask a question,” Sirius defended as she started pulling out her essay and books from her bag. “He was the one who took it too far.”

Julianne didn’t even look up from the parchment as she answered, “He’s just very passionate about Quidditch. He’s a pretty nice guy the rest of the time.” She looked down at the two sentences she had written and hesitated as she tried to recall exactly what the essay was supposed to be about. “He wasn’t wrong through,” she added as an afterthought, a smile on her face. She glanced up briefly before continuing on her essay as Sirius launched into a rant about how it wasn’t their fault that Ashley Sanders was a brilliant Keeper, but an awful captain and if they had just been able to get some decent players maybe they could have beaten Slytherin last year and been in the running.

“Mr. Black, this a library, not the Quidditch pitch,” Madame Pince snapped as she walked by. “Voices down please.”

Julianne bit her lip to keep from laughing as the librarian walked away. “Voices down, Mr. Black,” she teased as he started to pull out his own homework.

“Write your damn essay,” he grumbled.

 

***

 

“I don’t understand how you can be so awful at Transfiguration, but so good at Charms,” Kassie complained as her quill flew out of her hand once again as Julianne summoned it from across the table. Julianne shrugged as she handed it back to her friend. Kassie continued to write her essay as Julianne flipped through the pages of her Herbology textbook, going much too fast to be reading anything. She sighed, closing the book and glancing over at Kassie. She pointed her wand at her quill and mumbled a spell, sending it flying into her hand again.

“Would you stop?’ Kassie hissed, leaning across the table to snatch it back. “Some of us are actually trying to do work.”

“I could set it on fire if you’d rather me do that,” Julianne deadpanned, completely ignoring Kassie’s glare. She looked back down at her blank parchment that was supposed to be an essay on the proper procedure for harvesting the fangs of a Fanged Geranium. She glanced back up when she heard someone approaching their table. “Hey, Ivory,” she said as the blonde put her stuff down on the table.

Ivory glanced between Kassie’s frustrated expression and the blank parchment in front of Julianne. “Have you gotten anything done?” she asked Julianne.

“Yes,” Julianne said right as Kassie answered, “No.” Julianne shot a look across the table before continuing, “Yes, I got all of my Charms homework done an hour ago.” She reached over and grabbed the completed essay off of the stack of books Kassie had been using as proof. “And then I was just practicing some spells.”

Kassie snorted. “Is that what you’re calling it now?” Once again, her quill flew out of her hand and she looked like she was about to lunge across the table at Julianne before Ivory cut in.

“I swear to god if you guys get us kicked out of the library again,” she said, grabbing the quill out of Julianne’s hand and giving it back to Kassie. She turned back to Julianne and asked, “Have you practiced the Vanishing spells at all since class?”

Julianne twirled her wand in her hand. “Well, not exactly,” she started. “I started off trying to vanish Kassie’s quill, but I got bored so I started summoning it instead.”

Ivory shook her head. “You really need to find someone to tutor you if you want to pass your O.W.L.,” she lectured as she begun to pull out her own homework.

Julianne sank further down in her seat, putting down her wand and picking up her quill. “Who says I want to,” she mumbled under her breath so Ivory couldn’t hear.

“Why don’t you just ask Remus or Gwen to do it?” Kassie asked, not looking up from her essay. Julianne was interrupted from saying anything by the arrival of yet another person to their table.

“Hey, Kassie, are you ready?” Lily asked. Kassie nodded and started to pack up her stuff. Lily looked over at the other two. “Hey, Ivory,” she said. “Julianne,” she said curtly, hardly even looking over at her.

“Aw, it’s so good to see you too, Lily,” Julianne gushed, putting a fake smile on her face. Ivory frowned while Kassie just rolled her eyes as she said bye to her friends and started walking out of the library with Lily. “Always a pleasure seeing you!” Julianne called after them.

“Maybe if you were a little nicer to her she would finally forgive you,” Ivory said, going back to her essay. Julianne shrugged and twirled her quill in her hand, mindlessly flipping the pages of her textbook again.

“Even if I did we wouldn’t be friends,” she said, finally giving up and stopping at the page she needed. “This is more fun anyways.” Ivory rolled her eyes but said nothing, glancing over at the textbook in front of her as she started writing her translation. Julianne sighed and attempted to write her essay. They worked like that for a good hour, the quiet only broken by the scratch of their quills and the occasional rustle as one of them turned the pages of a book.

Ivory sat back when she was done, closing the book as she did so. “Are you done?” she asked Julianne, already putting her books back in her bag. Julianne glanced between Ivory’s completed translation and her half-done essay.

“For tonight?” she said. “Sure.” Ivory rolled her eyes as Julianne started throwing her books in her bag.

“Don’t you have that History of Magic essay to do too?” Ivory asked. Julianne nodded slowly, not wanting to answer. “And you have to practice Vanishing spells before Tuesday and you haven’t finished your Herbology essay and on top of that, don’t you have to go to tryouts tomorrow?”

“Alright, Mum,” Julianne snapped, tucking her wand into the side of her bag while she waited for her essay to dry. “I’ll get it done. Despite what you seem to think, I actually do care about passing my O.W.L.s.” She snatched up her essay and stalked out of the library, not waiting to see if Ivory was coming.

She slowed down when she had made it a good distance away from the library and started to try and stick her essay in her bag without it getting crumpled up. It was only the first week and already she was pretty much behind in everything but Charms, which was typical. No matter what she did, it always ended up the same way. She had tried so many different things to get a head start, but she was lucky enough to scrape by in most classes.

After what seemed like no time at all, she arrived at the door to Ravenclaw Tower and waited for the eagle knocker to come to life. “What is a corporeal Patronus made out of?” it asked in its musical voice.

Julianne hesitated for a second before answering, “A moment of true happiness.”

“Well phrased,” it said before the door swung open, allowing her to enter the common room. She threw her bag down beside an unoccupied chair and sank into it. She sat there for a few moments before sighing and getting her essay back out and moving to the floor as she placed the essay on a table, her back to the entrance.

As it got later and later, the common room started emptying as everyone made their way up to the dormitories. Julianne had more or less finished her Herbology essay and had attempted to begin her History of Magic essay before she glanced down at her watch. She groaned when she realized it was already past midnight and looked down at the three sentences she had for her essay, giving up on finishing it. All of her books were thrown into her bag and she tried not to think about how much work she still had left to do before classes on Monday. As she walked up the stairs to the dormitory, she thought at least there were Quidditch tryouts to look forward to.

 

***

 

To say that tryouts went horribly would have been an understatement.

Only about eighteen people even showed up and almost half of them were either first years who had never held a broom before or second years whose only experience was the flying lesson from the previous year. Cameron gave a very brief speech and sent all of the first years off before splitting the groups up based on what they were trying out for and sending them up to do a few laps around the pitch. Almost immediately, one of the second years and a few of the older students were sent packing. Cameron glanced around at the ones who were left.

“Alright,” he said, bending down to open the crate in front of him. “We’re going to have a quick scrimmage. Each of you will get a chance to play the position you are here trying out for.” He glanced behind him at his current team. He gave a quick nod to Bishop who mounted his broom and flew off to the goalposts closest to them.

Cameron turned back to the six players in front of him. “Adams, you will fly first with Scott here,” he said, gesturing to the brown haired boy to his right. “Your job will be to get the Quaffle past Julianne and score on Bishop while Mara”-he pointed to the petite girl standing beside Julianne-“flies around like she is looking for the Snitch.”

He paused and glanced over at the three Beaters. “Charles, you will go first for the Beaters. Your only job is to keep the Bludger away from the players. We will rotate the new players each time.” He looked around the new players. “Everyone ready?”

After a few nervous nods, the first group was up in the air. Cameron blew his whistle and they were gone. Carver Adams, a scrawny little fourth year, couldn’t seem to keep a hold of the Quaffle to save his life. Julianne managed to intercept every one of his passes to Scott and it got to the point that Cameron had to have her hang back so they could see if he was even able to score. Not surprisingly, Bishop hardly even had to try to save it. Adrian Charles, the other fourth year, did a decent job as Beater when he actually got to the Bludger and Cameron had to step in more than once to prevent either Mara or Scott from getting hit.

The next group fared somewhat better. Anabella Shrike, the only second year to actually be able to steer her broom, was extremely quick and good at turns for such a young player, but she didn’t seem to understand that if she never passed the Quaffle to Scott and always flew in the same pattern, it was extremely easy for Julianne to predict where to cut her off and Bishop to intercept her shots. Antoinette Pierson, who was actually one of Julianne’s roommates, did spectacularly as a Beater. Not only did Cameron not have to step in, but there were quite a few times that Julianne had to swerve out of the way to avoid a Bludger aimed at her that left Shrike an open path to the goal.

“Julianne, switch with Scott for this one!” Cameron called as the last two hopefuls flew up into position. Julianne nodded and glanced over at the last Chaser, a thin freckly boy named Fitz Grant. Bishop passed her the Quaffle as Cyrus Patterson flew over to Cameron with his Beater’s bat. Cameron blew his whistle and they were off. Immediately, Scott flew at her, going slightly off to the side to cover Fitz and almost instinctively, she dropped lower and threw the Quaffle under Scott, forgetting that Fitz would have no idea about their usual tactics. To her surprise, he appeared out of nowhere, easily scooping the Quaffle and taking off towards the goal posts, Scott poised to intercept him. Julianne flew towards him and, barely glancing down at her, he dropped the Quaffle before dropping back as she caught it and continued onto the goal posts.

After Fitz narrowly missed his first shot on Bishop, they set up and took off again. For the most part, Patterson had been able to keep the Bludger away from them and Cameron had only had to step in once. Scott swerved as Patterson sent it his way, freeing up Julianne to pass the Quaffle to Fitz and give him a clear path to the goals. Julianne hung back, waiting to see if he’d be able to make it this time when a shout from Cameron caused her to look over and see the Bludger heading straight for her with Patterson nowhere in sight. She dropped lower, seeing that it would now go right over her head. She turned back to watch Fitz and as she did, something swung at her face.

Almost immediately, she felt a sharp jolt of pain flash across her cheek and settle into her cheekbone and nose as her vision started to go blurry and her head started swimming. She was dimly aware of people yelling her name and hands grabbing her as they guided her down to the ground. She kept blinking as she tried to regain her vision, the entire left side of her face throbbing. It felt like a thousand needles were being stabbed into her skin and when she reached up to touch her face, she immediately flinched away.

“I think my nose is broken,” she mumbled as sharp pains shot through her cheekbone as she tried to talk.

“We’ll be in touch with all of you at a later time,” the person holding her up said and she recognized it as Cameron as he started to lead her off the pitch. Her vision was clearing slightly, but a dull throbbing had settled in just behind her eye and her face still felt like someone was stabbing her with needles. “Goddamn it, Julianne, we haven’t even started practice yet and you’re already getting Beater’s bats to the face.”

“What can I say,” she said, ignoring the painful protests of her face as she talked. “I’m trying to get ahead this term.”


	2. Headaches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You may be able to fool Ivory, but not me.”

“Ivory, I’m fine, will you please stop hovering?” Julianne snapped at her friend as she once again opened her mouth to ask if Julianne still felt okay.

Madame Pomfrey had had no trouble mending her nose and the fractures across her cheekbone in a matter of seconds, but she had not been able to do anything about the swelling or bruising. Her entire left eye was one huge purple and blue bruise and there was even some bruising on the edge of her right eye. Her left cheek was still puffy even though the bone had been fixed. She still got headaches when she concentrated too hard on trying to read or write, but she wasn’t about to admit that to Ivory, not when she already refused to believe that she didn’t have a concussion.

Ivory closed her mouth and went back to work on her essay. She continued to glance up every now and then, like she was making sure Julianne didn’t pass out while she wasn’t looking. Julianne continued to ignore her and instead focused on the number chart in front of her, constantly referring back to her textbook. She tried to concentrate on what she was doing and ignore the headache that was starting to come back as well as Ivory’s constant supervision.

Finally, she slammed the book shut after she had tried reading the same line multiple times with no success. “I’m starving, are you ready to go to lunch?” she said, not waiting for Ivory’s answer before beginning to pack up her things. Ivory hurried to pack up all the books she had laid out in front of her and slip her essay into her bag, barely catching up with Julianne as she started walking out of the library.

“So have you made any progress with the Vanishing spells?” Ivory asked after a few moments of silence. Julianne rolled her eyes at her friend’s persistence.

“Do you ever think of anything else besides schoolwork?” she asked, turning her head to look at Ivory. “I mean, there is a war going on right now, that might be kind of important to talk about.”

Ivory was spared form answering by someone calling their names. They stopped and turned to see Antoinette hurrying towards them. “Hey, Nettie,” Julianne said as she caught up with them.

“Hey,” Nettie said back, falling into step beside them as they continued on their way to the Great Hall. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay since I didn’t see you after tryouts yesterday.”

Julianne nodded and said, “Yeah, I’m fine, just a little bruising and swelling. But I didn’t get to find out, did you make the team?”

A smile broke out on Nettie’s face as she nodded. She opened her mouth to say something but was very quickly interrupted.

“What is this I hear about the-what the hell happened to your face?” James said as he caught up to the three of them.

“You look like you lost a fist fight with someone twice your size,” Sirius added as he walked up, Remus and Peter not very far behind him.

“More like a third year with a Beater’s bat,” Nettie said quietly, glancing around at the four boys who had converged on the three Ravenclaws.

“He was trying out for the team and his aim is a little off,” Julianne jumped in, trying to head off any comments from James and Sirius. “He hit me in the face on the back swing.”

Immediately, James and Sirius launched into a rant about how no one has any respect for basic safety and how if you don’t know how to use the equipment, don’t use it, Peter attempting to chime in every now and then.

“Are you okay?” Remus asked as they approached the Great Hall, completely ignoring his friends.

Julianne resisted the urge to snap at him and instead said, “Yeah, I’m fine.” When they reached the Great Hall, she gave Remus a quick wave before going off to the Ravenclaw table with Ivory and Nettie.

They had barely sat down when Cameron and Mara appeared across from them. “You alright, Julianne?” Cameron asked as she reached for a sandwich.

“The next person to ask me that will be getting a matching black eye,” she snapped, putting the sandwich down on her plate before grabbing a drink. “But yes, I’m fine.”

Cameron paused for a second before continuing, “Ok, good. Well, Nettie probably already told you that she made the team and so did Fitz, they kid you played with.” Julianne nodded, taking a bite out of her sandwich. “Practices will start in two weeks, Wednesdays through Fridays at six and Saturdays at noon.” She and Nettie both nodded as he finished. Mara looked down the table as she was called by some of her sixth year friends. She gave them a quick wave before getting up and moving, leaving Cameron there by himself.

Julianne glanced over at him as he sat there, not making a move to get any food. “Is that all?” she prodded, causing him to look back up at her.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, that’s it,” he said, getting up to go back down to his friends. He paused for a second before saying. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

Julianne stopped with her sandwich halfway to her mouth and nodded in surprise. “Thanks,” she said. He nodded again and then left, heading back down to where his friends were waiting for him. Julianne watched as he walked away, absentmindedly taking a bite of her sandwich.

“Looks like someone likes you,” Nettie teased.

“What?” Julianne said, turning back to look at her friends. Ivory smiled to herself while Nettie started laughing. “No, Cameron doesn’t like me,” she said once she realized what Nettie had said. “He’s just concerned because he’s the captain now and he feels responsible for-”

“Julianne, just eat your sandwich,” Ivory said as Nettie started laughing even harder. Julianne shot both of them a look, but went back to eating her sandwich, occasionally glancing down the table to where Cameron was sitting.

 

***

 

Monday dawned cold and overcast, which perfectly matched Julianne’s mood. Despite Ivory’s best efforts at trying to get her to finish her homework, she still had her Potions essay to finish before classes started since she was going to need the break before Transfiguration to make one last attempt at figuring out the Vanishing spell. She barely managed to get out of bed and get dressed before her roommates were out of the room and on their way to breakfast while she sat in the common room attempting to make the essay somewhat readable.

By the time she made it to the Arithmancy classroom, she was starving and her head was pounding from trying to concentrate on the essay. She walked in and took her seat between Remus and Samara Wilkins, one of her roommates, tossing her bag on the floor. Hardly a minute after she sat down, Professor Vector came in and began to write on the board with barely nod in the students’ direction to acknowledge them.

“Alright, class. Find a partner and turn to chapter four. Read through the basics and use Chaldean numerology on your partner. Once you are all finished, we will begin to discuss the magical aspects of this branch of numerology,” she instructed, sitting down at her desk as she finished.

Samara immediately turned to Lenora Chittock, one of her friends from Hufflepuff, who was sitting next to her. Julianne turned to Remus, reaching down for her book as she did so. “So what are we adding up this time?” she asked him, since he already had the book out in front of him.

“The same thing, basically,” he said, flipping a few pages. “Except this scale goes to eight instead of nine.”

Julianne groaned as she pulled her bag onto to her lap, trying to find her book. After finally accepting that she didn’t have it, she turned to ask Remus if she could share his, but stopped when she saw that he had already pushed it between the two of them. “Thanks,” she said, glancing over at the new chart that they had to use.

“Rough morning?” he asked as she began to copy down the numbers that matched up to his name. She just gave him a look and he smiled slightly before going back to the chart. “That bad?”

“I wish essays could just write themselves because I never have any idea how to make them long enough,” she said, beginning to flip through the book to find what the numbers meant. “Not to mention the fact that I still have no idea how to do a Vanishing spell.”

“I could help you after this class,” Remus offered as he waited for her to finish before flipping through the book himself.

“You have no idea how perfect that would be,” she said as he tried to find the right page. “Thank you so much.”

Remus shrugged as he started to copy down what he needed. “Kassie mentioned it a few days ago, so I figured I would ask.”

Julianne’s shoulders slumped when he said that and she looked back down at her paper. “Of course she did,” she mumbled, just barely loud enough for him to hear.

Before he could say anything else, Professor Vector called everyone back together and they did not have an opportunity to speak again until after class was over as she began to explain the magical applications of the process they just went through. Julianne tried to pay attention, but she was too focused on trying to figure out when she was going to have time to finish all the homework she still had left to do. When the end of class rolled around, she had only heard about half of the lecture and to top it off, Vector assigned yet another essay for them to complete before the following Monday.

The rest of the day seemed to drag on forever. Despite Remus’s best efforts, Julianne had not been able to even partially vanish her quill and so she labored through Transfiguration yet again. Everyone else had been able to at least partially vanish their snail and Ivory, Remus, and Lily were able to completely vanish their by the end of class, earning them all points for their Houses. At the end of class, McGonagall set them all questions on Vanishing spells, adding even more homework to the growing pile.

Potions passed just as slowly, though having Ivory sharing a station with her did help greatly. She was not as hopeless at Potions as she was at Transfiguration, but it still took all of her concentration to make sure that she didn’t mess anything up. Professor Slughorn would occasionally walk through the stations and comment, but he usually got sidetracked talking to one of the students from his infamous Slug Club. Julianne and Ivory were not a part of it and likely never would be. He filled the club with exceptionally talented students, such as Greta Catchlove from Hufflepuff, who was one of the best Charms student in the whole school, and Lily, who was top of the year in Potions, only Severus Snape rivaling her ability, and students who had some sort of connection in the magical world, like Niall MacFarlan from Ravenclaw, whose father once was captain of the Montrose Magpies and now worked in the Department of Magical Sports and Games, and Samara, whose mother was extremely high up in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

Last class of the day was Defense Against the Dark Arts with the newest professor, Professor Pratt. She was one of the youngest Defense teachers they had had in a while and she relied heavily on the practical aspects of spell casting, which usually meant that once she had described the spell to them, the rest of class was spent with a partner actually practicing it. She assigned the pairs each class, which allowed everyone a chance to work with everyone. The first half of class was spent reviewing the Shield Charm they had practiced last class and once Pratt was certain that they had it down, she moved onto reviewing the Stunning spell. Julianne had been paired with Peter for that class and they took turns shooting Stunners at each other while the other attempted to block it with the Shield Charm. Unfortunately for Peter, Julianne was actually quite good at figuring out all of the spells, seeing as half of them crossed over with Charms and he spent a good deal of the time being thrown back as she broke through his Shield. Thankfully, Pratt did not assign them any written work, instead instructing them to continue to practice and read over the next spells they were going to practice.

Julianne once again skipped going to the Great Hall, instead going to the library to revise her Herbology essay and add more to her History of Magic to get it to the length Professor Binns had asked for. She made her way through all of the stacks to a corner in the back that was tucked away behind multiple bookshelves. The only way anyone knew it was there was to have someone point it out to them, so it served as great place to study undisturbed. Julianne settled in and pulled out Herbology, attempting to make sense of what she had written in her sleep-deprived stupor. She worked on it for at least an hour and a half before giving up and moving onto History of Magic.

“Think fast,” a voice said from in front of her. She looked up just in time to see a small bag being thrown at her and was able to reach up and grab it before it hit her in the face. She glanced up as James sat down in the chair opposite of her, setting down a plate of food on the table. “Kassie stole some of those from Lily,” he said in answer to her raised eyebrow. “They’re supposed to help with headaches she said.”

Julianne looked down at the few pills in the bag and started to say, “How did you know-”

“You may be able to fool Ivory, but not me,” he said, sliding her the plate of food. “Remember that time we thought it would be a good idea to see if we could walk across the fence in my backyard and you fell off and sprained your wrist, but refused to tell your mum because you knew she would yell at you?’

Julianne smiled as she took a bite of the roll that was on the plate. “Yeah and I walked around all day trying to avoid touching everything until I accidentally went to catch that Quaffle you threw at me.”

“You had that same expression on your face all throughout Transfiguration when you were trying to concentrate,” he said as she pushed aside her essay to start eating. “Besides, I’ve had my share of Quidditch injuries and fracturing half your face in no way sounds pleasant.”

“Well, thanks,” she said. “Especially for the food.” He nodded as she continued to scarf down everything.

“Don’t mention it,” he said, getting up like he was about to leave. “Oh, I was thinking,” he started, causing her to look up. “You never seem to have any issues with Charms or anything we cover in Defense, right?” She nodded. “Well, what if you thought of Transfiguration like Charms. You aren’t taking something and changing it into something it isn’t, you’re just making it look different. Like, with Vanishing, you aren’t trying to make the snail go from existing to not existing, you’re just turning it the color of invisible. Like a permanent Disillusionment Charm.”

Julianne stopped eating and tried to process what James just said. “I…I think that actually makes sense,” she said. “Thanks.” He nodded and gave her a small smile before walking out of her little corner, leaving her to think about what he had said. She pulled out her wand and looked at her quill, knowing she had a spare. She looked at it and, instead of thinking that she needed to make it disappear completely, she thought about just making it disappear from view. “Evanesco,” she whispered and to her shock and surprise, the quill actually began to look somewhat transparent, a definite improvement from earlier that day. She grinned as she went back to her essay.

“Thank you, James.”

 

***

 

The rest of the week progressed in much the same way and the amount of homework that was being piled onto the fifth years was getting to be more than a bit excessive. Julianne frequently skipped meals to hole up in the library or common room trying to finish everything, panicking slightly about what she would do when Quidditch practices started cutting into her non-existent free time. Even Ivory and Samara, who normally were able to skate by pretty easily, wound up sitting with Julianne at one in the morning trying to finish this essay or that translation before class the next day. At least Julianne was able to have marginally more success in Transfiguration after James’s little tip, even if McGonagall had decided to give them a break on Vanishing spells for the time being.

Along with the constant pressure of being able to juggle all of the schoolwork being thrown at them, reports of the war between a group called the Death Eaters and pretty much everyone else in the wizarding world had started to trickle into Hogwarts. The Daily Prophet was now almost exclusively covering the events of the war, with hardly a page in it that didn’t have some mention of a not-so-mysterious disappearance or a ‘suspicious’ murder.

People like Samara whose parents worked in the Ministry relayed whatever information they could, but it was generally the same thing every time: the Ministry had no clue what to do to stop these crazed blood-purists. Nettie, whose father worked in the Muggle government, told us that things were no better than they were in the wizarding community; in fact, it was worse because they had no absolutely no explanations for the deaths that occurred seemingly without a cause and the multiple instances of Muggles being tortured for the fun of it.

“Look at this,” Ivory said to Julianne, who she had not so diplomatically forced to come down to breakfast that day. She flattened out the Prophet in front of her. “‘Audrey Morgan, Chaser for the Appleby Arrows, was found dead in her home late Thursday night. There has been no word yet on the fate of her husband, Euan, or her younger sister, Diana Hatton.’ Didn’t Diana graduate just two years ago?” Julianne nodded, swallowing her mouthful of bacon.

“Yeah, she was a Chaser on the Hufflepuff team,” she said, glancing at the paper to see if there were any other names they recognized. This had become a normal routine for the students who still received the Prophet every day and it did nothing to lighten the mood around the castle.

In fact, the only ones who didn’t seem to be fazed by the growing reports of death and destruction were the group of Slytherins who seemed hell-bent on joining the Death Eaters once they left Hogwarts. They were known for hexing Muggleborn students as they passed them in the hallways and even went so far as cornering half-bloods if they were feeling particularly bold. Not surprisingly, a good majority of the magic they used was Dark Magic in some way, shape, or form, leaving many students in the hospital wing for much longer than should have been necessary.

It wasn’t only them that everyone had to be careful of in the hallways. As all the students started gaining more knowledge of various spells and jinxes as they made their way up through the years, it was not uncommon to get caught in the crossfire. Julianne had been the target of numerous jinxes throughout the years as it got closer to Quidditch season, especially when there was a match coming up.

There were several people that, as a rule of thumb, everyone avoided getting in between when they were in the same room as each other, most notably, James and Sirius and Severus Snape. Snape was a fifth year Slytherin who had somehow managed to befriend Lily Evans of all people and did not take kindly to James’s advances on her. Whenever the three of them were within a 20 meter radius of each other, it was advisable to get as far away as possible unless you wanted to be the recipient of a wayward hex or jinx. The fact that both Lily and Remus had been made prefects that year had seemed to make absolutely no difference in the frequency of these little attacks.

As Julianne and Ivory made their way to Charms, a disturbance in the corridor caused them to be blocked and they had to edge their way around the small crowd that had formed around it. When they got close enough to see what was happening, they were not surprised to see Snape with bright pink hair glaring down James as Lily ripped into him.

“You would think that he would learn that she’s not interested at some point and just drop it,” Ivory commented as they were able to get past the little group and continue on their way to class.

“Which one?” Julianne asked casually, pushing her hair behind her ear so she could see inside her bag to make sure she had the right textbook.

“Well, both, I guess,” Ivory said, obviously not expecting that question. “But maybe laying off the hexes would convince Lily that they actually care about her, if they even care about her at all.”

“James does care about her,” Julianne defended. “He just doesn’t have the best way of showing it, but he really does care about Lily as a person and not just some possession like Snape seems to.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Ivory conceded as they turned the last corner to the classroom. Julianne nodded as they made it to classroom. James Potter may have been an arrogant prick most of the time, but that was better than a wannabe Death Eater any day of the week.


	3. First First Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “This is definitely the best first first date I’ve ever had.”

September passed rather uneventfully and before anyone could bat an eye, it was already October. Notices started going up in all the common rooms about the upcoming Hogsmeade trip on the 11th and depending on the student, it was either a relief or another bitter reminder about how much homework they still had left to finish.

“Do you think I could pay someone to finish this essay?” Julianne asked as she, Ivory, and Gwendolyn Fortescue, their fifth roommate, sat in the common room attempting to make a dent in their homework. “I could pay that fourth year, what’s his name, the one who’s really good at Herbology.”

“Or you could just do it yourself,” Ivory chimed in, not even looking up from her rune translation. Gwen had to hide a smile as Julianne just glared at Ivory. Before she could say anything else, someone dropped a bag beside the chair she was sitting in and sank down on the floor.

“Was the library really that bad?” Julianne asked as Nettie began to search through her bag to find whatever she had been working on.

“When you are exhausted from Quidditch practice and have to deal with avoiding Rosier and Avery in the halls, yes, it really is that bad,” Nettie grumbled, finally locating her dream journal for Divination.

“Well, I’m sure practice will get easier, right Julianne?” Gwen comforted, looking over at Julianne for support.

“Do you want me to tell the truth or lie?” she said, barely glancing up from her essay. Nettie just groaned and began to work on whatever it was she had to do while the other three fell quiet as they concentrated on homework.

Eventually, Gwen and Ivory both finished their homework, leaving Nettie and Julianne to suffer through. The common room kept emptying out as it got later and later and before they knew it, it was almost midnight and there were only about six other people who were still up. Julianne glanced over at Nettie and saw that she was still on the same translation she had been twenty minutes ago. She sighed and turned back to her Defense essay, trying to remember exactly how Pratt had described a Dementor attack.

They were both distracted from their homework by someone coming over and sitting down across from them. “Hey, Cameron,” Julianne said. “Did you need something?” Nettie looked up too, glancing between the two of them.

Cameron shifted in his seat before saying, “Yeah, I needed to ask you something about the Hogsmeade trip.”

“I swear to god, if you make us have practice that day,” Nettie threatened, pointing her quill at him menacingly. Cameron looked down at Nettie like he just realized she was still sitting there.

“What, no. Practice is canceled that day,” he said, brushing off her comment.

“Good,” Nettie muttered, going back to her translation.

Juliann waited to see if he was going to continue. “What did you need to ask?” she prodded, getting slightly annoyed at the distraction. Cameron hesitated before continuing.

“I just needed to ask if you, um, would like to, uh, go to Hogsmeade with me?”

The scratch of Nettie’s quill stopped abruptly as her head snapped up to look between Julianne and Cameron. Julianne sat there for a second, wide-eyed as she tried to process what he had just said. Her quill had fallen out of her hand and, judging by Cameron’s expression, her reaction was certainly not the one that he thought he was going to get.

“You mean, like a date?” she asked slowly, confirming what she suspected was already true. Nettie’s eyes kept flashing between them like she was watching the world’s most exciting tennis match, her homework completely abandoned. Julianne continued to stare at Cameron, trying to figure out if he was serious or not. She didn’t think that he was the kind of person that would do that, but there was no other reason she could think of for him to be asking her. Cameron shifted in his seat again, throwing another glance down at Nettie.

“Uh, yeah, that would be the plan,” he said and Julianne noticed a slight wince as he realized how cheesy he sounded. She glanced down at Nettie who started nodding furiously, ignoring the fact that Cameron was sitting barely five feet away.

Julianne turned back and looked at him, her mind still racing. She noticed the expression on Cameron’s face turn from nervousness to disappointment and made up her mind at the last second. “Sure,” she said. “I’d love to go to Hogsmeade with you.”

 

***

 

As it got closer to Hogsmeade, Julianne began furiously trying to balance Quidditch practice with getting her homework done so she didn’t have it hanging over her head through her date. She was sitting in the courtyard with Kassie about two days after Cameron had asked her out, slowly making progress on her Potions essay when a flurry of activity distracted her.

“So what is this we hear about you and a certain Ravenclaw Beater going to Hogsmeade together, Julianne?” James asked as he sat down on the bench beside her, Sirius and Peter following suit.

“What can I say, Nettie and I just can’t keep our feelings a secret anymore,” she deadpanned, not looking up from her essay. Kassie glanced up when she heard the tone of annoyance in her friend’s voice.

Sirius, for the most part, seemed not to notice it and if he did, he chose to ignore it. “So Stewart is taking you to Hogsmeade,” he prodded, causing Julianne to slam the book she was using shut.

“Yes, I am going to Hogsmeade with Cameron and I have no idea why you think that’s any of your concern,” she snapped, packing up all her stuff before standing up. “And thank you, Kassie, for telling them.”

“Sorry,” Kassie said sheepishly. “They heard me talking to Marlene, I didn’t mean for them to hear.”

Julianne stalked away from the table, causing the boys to jump up and follow after her. “We just want to make sure that you won’t get hurt,” James said as they caught up.

“It’s a trip to Hogsmeade,” she said, glaring at him as he started walking beside her. “Pretty sure the only way I’m going to get hurt is if he punches me in the face and I sincerely doubt that will happen.”

“Yeah, but-” Sirius started and Julianne whipped around to face him, causing him to stop.

“Look, I’ve been friends with you all since first year and I get that you are just being nice, but I’ve seen the way you ‘protect’ Lily and I swear to Merlin if you pull the same shit with Cameron that you do to people who try and get close to her, you are going to wish that it was her you messed with,” Julianne threatened, glaring each of them down. The three of them just nodded slowly and Julianne took that moment to start back down the hallway, leaving them behind to ponder on what she had planned for them.

 

***

 

“Sorry I’m late,” Julianne said she ran up to the entrance hall, still trying to pull on her jacket. Cameron smiled as she stopped beside him, grabbing the back of her jacket so she could put her arm though.

“No problem,” he said as they started walking out of the castle and down to the village. The wind whipped at their faces as they made the trek. Julianne attempted to brush her hair out of her face, eventually just giving up and letting it blow wherever it felt like.

“So,” Cameron said, trailing off at end. Julianne glanced up at him through her hair which had once again blown into her face.

“So,” she prodded, looking ahead to see how much farther they had to walk before they could find somewhere warm. Cameron gave a nervous laugh and ran his hand through his hair.

“Sorry, I just, um,” he stammered and Julianne looked over at him. A small smile crept onto her face.

“So who do you think the Arrows are going to bring up to replace Audrey Morgan?” she asked, trying once again to keep her hair out of her face. Cameron’s face lit up and he immediately launched into a discussion of stats and who had the best relationship with who. The Quidditch discussion was enough to carry them the rest of the way to Hogsmeade and through two rounds of butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks before Cameron decided to change the subject.

“Well this is definitely one of the better first dates that I’ve been on,” he said as Julianne took a sip of her drink. She raised her eyebrow and set the drink down.

“Thank you, I think?” she said, smiling when his eyes widened as he realized what he said.

“No, wait, I didn’t mean-that was supposed to be a compliment,” he said, immediately trying to backtrack.

“Exactly how many bad first dates have you been on?” she teased, taking a sip of her drink as she watched him try to fix what he said.

“I’m just going to stop talking now,” he said, a blush spreading across his cheeks.

“No, no, you’re fine,” Julianne reassured, holding back her laughter. “This is definitely the best first first date I’ve ever had.”

Now it was Cameron’s turn to raise his eyebrow. “You’ve never been on a date before,” he asked incredulously. Julianne shook her head and took another sip of her butterbeer. “You’ve never dated anyone?”

“Nope,” Julianne said, putting her drink down and pushing it back and forth between her hands. “I had this massive crush on this one guy for pretty much the past three and a half years, so dating never really happened.”

“So what changed your mind?” Cameron asked, sounding genuinely interested.

Julianne shrugged. “I realized that it was never going to happen and I just kind of gave up on him,” she explained. “And now here I am.”

Cameron smiled. “Well that’s his loss,” he said. Julianne smiled and ducked her head, feeling her cheeks start to get warm. They talked until both of them had finished their drinks and then wandered around the village bit, stopping in at Honeydukes before eventually making their way back up to the school.

“I had fun,” he said as they got closer to the doors of the castle. Julianne nodded, not trusting herself to look at him.

“Me too,” she said, stopping once they were inside. They both hesitated, unsure of what to say when Julianne interrupted the silence, saying, “I promised I’d meet Ivory in the library when I got back so…”

Cameron nodded. “I’ll see you around then,” he said. He hesitated for a second before bending down and giving her a quick kiss before turning around and heading to the Ravenclaw common room. Julianne stood there for a moment, processing what had just happened. A grin slowly spread across her face as she started on her way to the library. She had a lot that she needed to tell Ivory.

 

***

 

“Are you sure that we can’t have just one?” Nettie asked as Julianne located the box of cookies her mother had sent her the other day.

“I’m positive,” she said, gathering up the box and her bag. “I need them for a peace offering.” Ignoring her roommate’s confused look, she headed out of the dormitory and made her way to the library where she hoped she would find the people she was looking for. Once she reached the library, she scanned the tables until she located the one she was looking for, making a beeline for it as best she could while winding through bookshelves and tables.

She set the box down on the table once she got there, causing the four boys to look up from whatever they had been doing. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for snapping at you the other day, but I really did want to have an actual date without any of you guys interfering,” she said, giving a pointed look to James and Sirius. “So, thank you for not interfering and sorry for snapping.”

“I’m not sure if we’re ready accept your apology,” James said, pretending to be hurt. Julianne rolled her eyes and opened the box, pushing it towards the boys. James immediately locked onto the contents. “Wait, are those your mum’s cookies?”

Julianne nodded. “They’re a peace offering,” she said and James immediately grabbed as many as he could.

“Apology more than accepted,” he said, already cramming one into his mouth.

Sirius looked at the box skeptically as both Remus and Peter reached for one. “I don’t know,” he said.

Before Julianne could say anything, James cut in, saying, “Sirius, Mrs. Meyers’ cookies can literally end wars. Just accept the peace offering.” Sirius hesitated, but then reached for a cookie.

Julianne nodded and started to walk away when James called her back. “Uh, no, you do not get off that easily.” She rolled her eyes and turned back to them, leaning on the table with her hands.

“You get one question before I have to go to dinner,” she said.

“Fine,” James said, popping another cookie in his mouth before continuing. “So will you be seeing more of Cameron in the near future?”

Julianne smiled and said, “That is the plan, yes.”

She pushed off the table and went to walk away when Sirius asked, “Wait, so you two are dating now? It wasn’t just a one-time thing?” Julianne half turned to look at him.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure we are dating,” she answered. She noticed Remus and Peter both glance up from actually doing homework and look at Sirius for a split second before going back to homework, Peter grabbing another cookie.

After an awkward pause, James said, “Then you should know, we reserve the right to jinx him if we see fit.”

Julianne rolled her eyes and smiled, turning to walk away. “If I didn’t see it, I can’t stop it.”

 

***

 

Though the little random spells aimed at Cameron had not been as frequent as Julianne had expected, they were still enough to start to seriously get on his nerves, but true to his word, he did his best to keep his mouth shut about whatever Sirius and James were doing to him behind Julianne’s back. She could tell that he was becoming more and more frustrated with it, but by now she knew him well enough to know at that point, he was not going to give them the satisfaction of admitting they were getting to him.

“You know, he’s lasted a lot longer than I thought he was going to,” Remus said as they left Arithmancy together. “The last guy who tried to date Lily barely made it through the week before admitting defeat.”

Julianne smiled as they walked. “Yeah, he isn’t happy about it, but I don’t think I would be either if James and Sirius were hexing me every chance they got.”

“No, you definitely would not be,” a voice said from behind them.

“Hey,” Julianne said once she realized that it was Cameron. She reached up and gave him a quick kiss. He returned it and then looked warily at Remus, like he thought he was going to randomly starting shooting spells at him too.

“I’ll see you later, Julianne,” Remus said, obviously noticing the look Cameron was giving him, and started back down the hallway.

“He’s the nice one, you know,” Julianne pointed out as they started walking.

“Yeah, I know, but he’s still friends with them voluntarily,” Cameron said, putting an arm around her shoulders.

Julianne rolled her eyes. “They really aren’t-”

“I know, I know,” Cameron cut in. “They aren’t that bad once you get to know them. You’ve given that speech just a few times.” She smiled as they turned a corner, stopping along the wall that led to a courtyard.

“Good, then it’s finally sinking in,” she teased. He smiled and reached over to tuck a piece of her hair that had fallen out of her pony tail behind her ear.

“So,” he said, dropping his hand back to his side and leaning against the wall that she was already perched on.

“Yes, you can talk about Quidditch,” she said, cutting off whatever he was about to say.

He smiled and leaned over, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “I knew there was a reason I liked you,” he joked.

Julianne rolled her eyes at him again and said, “Just get on with your stats talk.” Needing no further prompting, he instantly launched into a rant that he seemed to have memorized. Julianne interjected every now and then, adding in information that she had picked up from James and Kassie. Cameron had just started in on how Gryffindor had no chance against Slytherin when someone interrupted them.

“What was that, Stewart?” they asked as Cameron continued to go on about the shortcomings of the Gryffindor team.

Julianne immediately jumped down from her perch on the wall and she could feel Cameron tense up beside her. “Not now, James,” she warned as he walked up, the others right behind him.

“No, I want to hear what he has to say,” James said, crossing his arms and glaring down at Cameron. “We don’t have a chance in hell of beating Slytherin?” Cameron straightened up, glaring right back at James.

“No, you don’t,” he said evenly. Julianne groaned, figuring that the conversation was not going to end well at all.

“And why would that be?” Sirius asked icily, joining in the conversation. Julianne took a step closer to Cameron, ready to jump in if things started to go south.

Cameron just gave a short laugh. “You have no idea how to work as a team,” he said. “Your captain has no idea how to pull you together-”

“Ok, that is enough,” Julianne said, stepping between them. James and Sirius looked ready to jump Cameron, James even reaching for his wand. Remus had put a hand on each of their shoulders, while Peter just sat there looking mildly terrified at how intense the ‘discussion’ had gotten. “We’re done here,” she continued, putting both her hands on Cameron’s arm in an attempt to steer him away.

“No, we aren’t,” James said, not taking his eyes off of Cameron’s smug expression.

“Yes, you really are,” Julianne asserted, now physically pushing her boyfriend away. She threw an apologetic look over her shoulder at Remus who appeared to be trying to talk them down from sending whatever hex they felt like at Cameron, judging by their expressions.

When they got out of eyesight of the boys, Julianne dropped her hands from Cameron’s arm, but continued to stand close to him incase either party decided to finish what they had started in a less than diplomatic manner. “Honestly, you guys take Quidditch way too seriously.”

 

***

 

“Julianne, you’re a girl,” James said as he sat down beside her. She barely even glanced up from her number chart.

“Very good, James,” she said, noting that Sirius had sat down with him. “Taken you fifteen years to notice that?”

Ignoring her comment, he continued, “So if I asked you a hypothetical question-”

“I’m not the person you want to ask about Lily,” she cut in, only glancing up once she had finished her problem. “I’d just tell you to keep doing what you’re doing. She seems to enjoy it so much.”

Sirius laughed at his friend’s crestfallen expression. “Did you really expect a different answer?” He turned to Julianne as she went back to her problems. “I can’t believe you two are still fighting about this three years later.”

“It’s not fighting,” Julianne said. “It’s casual dislike and a refusal to drop a petty grudge.”

In their second year, there had been a little mishap while they were practicing Severing Charms. Julianne’s hand had slipped and shot over to Lily, cutting off half her hair. Lily had been furious, demanding that Julianne apologize. Julianne being Julianne and having quite the attitude as a twelve-year-old, insisted that it was an accident (which it was), so she had nothing to apologize for. Three years later and the two of them still hadn’t made up, but in all honesty, the two of them almost seemed to enjoy the back and forth they had going and the occasional jinx they would swap in the halls.

James snorted, mumbling something that sounded like “Whatever you say” before Sirius continued, “So how come you’re out here alone?”

There was a brief pause while Julianne finished the problem she was on before rattling off, “Ivory didn’t want to come, Gwen is off with Miles, who knows where Samara is, Nettie needed to use the library, and Kassie is studying with Lily.”

“What about Ste-Cameron?” Sirius asked again, obviously extremely keen on figuring out why she was alone.

“Uh, I don’t know,” she said, starting to get slightly annoyed with the distraction. “Library maybe?”

“You mean you don’t know?” James cut in.

Julianne looked up from her work at the last comment, annoyance plain on her face. “It’s not my job to know where he is every second of every day. We’re allowed to spend time alone.”

James laughed. “Sure didn’t look like you wanted to,” he shot back, a smirk on his face.

“You guys have been joined at the hip since you started dating,” Sirius added in response to Julianne’s glare. “He’s barely let you out of his sight.”

Julianne faltered a bit at that. It was true she and Cameron had been spending a lot of time together, but she hadn’t thought about it too much. It wasn’t like she never saw her friends anymore, she just spent a little less time with them now…

“Why do you care so much?” she accused, ignoring the little nagging voice in her head saying that they had a point. “It’s not really any of your business.”

James threw a quick look at Sirius, who had gotten rather uncomfortable all of a sudden. “We care because we don’t want you to get hurt,” James said, looking over at Julianne again. “Plus, as your brother-”

“Okay, first off, we are not related, James,” Julianne cut in, holding up her hand to get him to stop. “Second of all, I don’t need relationship help from you two.”

Both boys immediately turned to look at her with reproachful expressions. She looked between them, the tip of her quill in her mouth. “What,” she said. “You two are the last people I would ever ask for relationship help.”

“I take offense to that,” James complained, looking over at Sirius to see if he agreed.

Julianne just gave both of them a look. “James, you have been chasing the same girl for the past four years and she still won’t give you the time of day.” She turned to Sirius. “And Sirius, your longest relationship lasted three months and Marlene is still kind of fuzzy about what actually happened.” Both boys acted like they wanted to say something and then thought better of it. Julianne smiled and then turned back to her Arithmancy. “Can one of you hand me that book?” she asked, pointing to the pile that was near Sirius.

She watched out of the corner of her eye as James and Sirius seemed to argue over it briefly before Sirius grabbed the book and passed it over to her. She reached for it without looking and accidentally brushed hands with him. Before she could close her hand on the book, Sirius let go.

“Oh, sorry,” he said as she picked it up. She gave him a confused look, noticing that James was giving him a look as well.

“Don’t be?” she said, flipping open the book. “Thanks.” She looked back down at the number charts she was working on, ignoring the looks that James was giving Sirius. After about a minute, Sirius stood up abruptly. Julianne looked over in surprise as James stood up as well.

“We, uh, told Remus and Peter we would meet them,” James explained quickly when he caught Julianne’s questioning look.

“Okay, bye,” she called to them as they both walked away, continuing whatever discussion they obviously didn’t want her to hear. She went back to her homework, flipping to the page she needed. “How did I get stuck with friends like you two?’ she mumbled to herself as she continued to scribble away at her homework.


	4. Under the Mistletoe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of smile played across Pratt’s face as she started to walk away and just as she passed them, Julianne was sure she heard her whisper, “But it certainly was an excellent Stinging Jinx.”

As the Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff Quidditch match drew closer, Cameron made the whole team promise that they would never go anywhere by themselves. The Hufflepuff team was in no way known for hexing the opposing team, but the Slytherins would take any chance they could get to have a go at someone, especially since almost half the Ravenclaw team was either a half-blood or Muggleborn. The Slytherins had been getting bolder as they year wore on and even just walking down the corridor was cause enough for them to attack someone.

Of course, they were not the only ones who enjoyed hexing people in the halls. Cameron was still becoming increasingly annoyed with the barrage of jinxes and spells sent his way by James and Sirius, but he hadn’t brought it up with Julianne since the night she had snapped at him for it. That is, he didn’t say anything to her until about two days before the match when they were walking to dinner together from the library as per his request that no one go anywhere alone and his bag randomly split open, all of his books spilling out onto the floor.

“That is it,” he said, stopping and turning around to look at whoever did it. Julianne turned too, a feeling of dread in her stomach. Just as she thought, Sirius and Remus were walking right behind them, the former with his wand out still. “What is your problem, Black?” he snarled. Sirius just glared down at him, being a good two or three inches taller.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Stewart,” he said, an icy edge to his voice. “Just having a bit of fun.”

“Fun?” Cameron growled and Julianne immediately placed her hand on his arm, her eyes locked onto his wand.

“Cameron,” she cautioned, seeing that Sirius had also tightened his grip on his wand. Cameron may have been a year older, but she had no doubt in her mind that if it came down to a duel between him and Sirius, he would not come out the victor. Remus seemed to have come to the same conclusion as he moved closer to his friend, his eyes trained on his wand.

Cameron brushed off her hand and continued to glare at Sirius. “Well, whatever this is, I want it to stop. Now.” A small crowd had now gathered around the four of them, but Cameron and Sirius seemed to pay no attention to it at all.

Sirius gave a short, humorless laugh before saying, “What, you can’t take a little joke? Your girlfriend sure seemed to think you could.” At that, Julianne’s snapped around to look at him. Remus didn’t seem to have any idea where he was going with that either, as his confused expression mirrored Julianne’s.

Cameron’s bravado faltered slightly at that as he glanced down at Julianne before looking back up at Sirius. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, she didn’t tell you?” he said and, looking at the smug expression on his face, Julianne suddenly realized what he was going to say. “She gave us permission to have a bit of fun with you. What was it she said, Remus?” Remus shrunk back and shook his head, obviously wanting no part of it. “Oh yeah, ‘If I can’t see it, I can’t stop it.’ Isn’t that right, Julianne?”

If looks could kill, Sirius would have been dead ten times over with the murderous glare Julianne was giving him. Cameron’s attitude completely fell apart then as he looked between Sirius and Julianne. “Cameron, wait,” Julianne said as he pulled away. He ignored her, instead scooping his books off the floor and quickly making an exit, the crowd that had converged parting to make room for him.

Julianne turned back to face Sirius and Remus. Sirius’s hostility from just moments before had already faded away as it seemed to register what he had just said when he saw furious look on Julianne’s face. “Wait, Julianne,” he started, but she cut him off.

“Fuck you, Black,” she said quietly, immediately heading off in the same direction that Cameron had gone.

The tears didn’t start falling until she was well out of sight of everyone.

 

***

 

They managed to completely destroy Hufflepuff in the match, which was not much of a surprise, since almost the entire school would admit that Bishop Stebbins was the best Keeper the school had, no exception. Their win put them in first place for the Quidditch Cup, just one goal ahead of Slytherin. Cameron liked to remind them of that fact every chance he got and was now strictly enforcing the buddy rule, especially for Nettie, Fitz, and Scott, the half-bloods and Muggleborn on the team.

“Julianne…Julianne!” She tore her eyes away from where Cameron was sitting discussing something with Mara and a couple other sixth years and turned to look at Ivory.

“Hmm?” she said, still not entirely focused on what her friend had been saying. Ivory looked at her with a concerned expression, glancing over at Cameron for a second.

“You need to talk to him,” she said, abandoning her essay in favor of a pep talk. “Try and fix things-”

“He made it pretty clear that that was the last thing he wanted to do,” Julianne said bitterly, looking down at her half-finished mess of a Transfiguration essay.

Cameron had broken up with her almost as soon as she had caught up to him after his little fight with Sirius. He had said that he really did like her, but even she wasn’t worth dealing with James and Sirius’s games. His exact words were that he “would be her captain and that’s all he would be.” Luckily, it hadn’t affected their ability to play Quidditch together, but it was certainly taking its toll on her ability to complete her homework thoroughly.

“I don’t even think I liked him, though,” she said, abandoning hope of being able to concentrate on her homework. Ivory had suggested that they go down to the library, but Julianne had quickly shot that down, saying they ran the risk of running into Sirius. “I’m pretty sure I just liked that he was attractive and nice to me. Why am I so upset about this?” She put her head down on the table.

“Maybe…maybe you aren’t upset about Cameron,” Ivory offered, her voice even quieter than normal. Julianne picked her head up and gave her a look. “I’m serious,” she defended. “You said it yourself, you really didn’t care about him and you two weren’t exactly the model couple.”

“Get to the point, Ivory,” Julianne said, already not liking the turn the conversation was taking.

Ivory hesitated and glanced at Julianne before taking a deep breath. “Maybe you’re actually upset that Sirius would do that to you,” she said in a rush, like she expected Julianne to come after her for it.

“Upset?” Julianne asked, her voice dripping with doubt. “Upset? Definitely not. Angry? Furious beyond all reason? Those sound a bit more accurate.”

Ivory just gave her an exasperated look, but didn’t press the issue further. They both went back to their homework, but were interrupted not a minute later by Gwen busting into the common room and, once she located them, making a beeline straight for them.

“Gwen, what’s wrong?” Ivory asked, a note of alarm in her voice when she saw the panicked look on their roommate’s face.

It took her a second to catch her breath from her apparent sprint to the common room before she was able to say, “Nettie’s in the hospital wing,” she managed to get out. “Avery and Rosier attacked her.”

They had all the eyes of the common room on them as they instantly leapt up from the table and were out the door on their way to the hospital wing, all thoughts of their previous discussion gone. They reached their destination in record time, Julianne shoving the doors open with a bit more force than was absolutely necessary.

“Ms. Meyers, what is the meaning of this?” Madame Pomfrey chastised as she hurried over to the three of them. Professor Dumbledore looked up from next to one of the beds where he was standing with Professors Sprout and Flitwick. “This is none-”

“What happened?” Julianne demanded, trying to look around the matron to get a glimpse of where Nettie was. “Is she okay? What did they do to her?”

“Ms. Meyers, this is none of your concern,” Madame Pomfrey repeated, placing her hands on Julianne’s shoulders to try and gently steer her out of the hospital wing. Julianne took a step back, brushing off her hands.

“She’s my friend, I think it is my concern,” she argued back. Ivory then put her hand firmly on Julianne’s shoulder and Gwen grabbed her arm.

“Julianne, we’ll just come back tomorrow,” Ivory said, tightening her grip. “Come on.” After a few seconds, Julianne finally relented and let Gwen and Ivory lead her out of the hospital wing, much to the relief of Madame Pomfrey.

“I’m going to kill them,” Julianne growled as soon as the doors had closed behind them. She clenched her fists and looked about ready to attack someone, even with her lack of wand. “I will fucking hex them into oblivion.”

“Julianne, you don’t even know what they did to her,” Ivory said soothingly, trying to get her to calm down before she did anything rash.

“Does it matter what they did to her?” Julianne hissed through clenched teeth. “They did it and that’s enough for me.”

“The Cruciatus Curse,” Gwen said, so quietly that it was almost impossible to hear over Julianne’s ranting. The other two girls turned to look at her in shock. “They cornered her and Cardoc Dearborn and knocked him out cold. Miles and I were walking back from the library when we saw them.” She faltered for a second and had to take a deep breath to steady herself. “They had put a Silencing Charm on her and they were using the Cruciatus Cure on her.” She broke off again before continuing, “Miles stunned them when they weren’t looking and then cast the body bind curse on them so they couldn’t get away while we tried to find someone.” As she finished, tears sprung up in her eyes. “It was awful seeing her like that, in so much pain.”

Ivory put a comforting arm around Gwen’s shoulder as she tried to keep from crying, wiping away the few tears that had escaped. Julianne turned away, almost shaking from anger at that point. “What gives them the right to think they can do that to someone,” she said, her mind already flashing through all the hexes and jinxes she knew. “They are going to pay for this.”

“Julianne, no,” Ivory warned, a tone of authority in her voice.

“Why not?” Julianne said, turning to face her friend. Her voice was even, but her eyes flashed with anger. “Why not give those scumbags what they deserve?”

“It’ll make it worse,” Gwen said, seeming to have collected herself after telling her story. “Just let the teachers handle it, you’ll just get yourself into trouble.”

Julianne turned away, saying, “Fine, but if they happen to be in the way when I’m practicing spells for Defense, I will not be responsible for what happens to them.”

 

***

 

By lunch the next day, the whole school had heard about Nettie’s attack. Cardoc Dearborn, who had been cleared by Madame Pomfrey to leave the hospital wing that morning, was not left alone the whole day, everyone wanting to know what happened. Once they realized that he really didn’t know much, seeing as he was unconscious for a good part of it, they immediately turned to Miles and Gwen for the whole story. Miles steadfastly refused to say anything more than the bare minimum (that Avery and Rosier had attacked Nettie and used an Unforgivable on her) and Gwen simply refused to talk about it at all. Whenever she wasn’t with Miles, Julianne, Ivory, and even Samara stayed with her, a quick glare from Julianne enough to send the younger students packing without asking anything.

“I don’t even think I have words to describe how utterly infuriating this whole thing is,” Julianne growled, stabbing at her plate with more force than was really necessary. For some insane reason that no one could understand, Avery and Rosier hadn’t been expelled. Since Nettie hadn’t been seriously injured by the curse, all they had gotten was detentions every day for the next five months and they were being chaperoned by a teacher everywhere they went. “They need to be locked up in Azkaban.”

“Well, you know Dumbledore, he’s big into second chances,” Ivory said. She cast a dark look over to the Slytherin table over Julianne’s shoulder.

“I’m done, do you want to go to the library before History of Magic?” Julianne said, leaving most of her lunch untouched. Ivory threw a glance over to the Gryffindor table to make sure Gwen was still okay with Miles before nodding.

They got up and made their way out of the Great Hall and were on their way to the library when they heard two girls talking behind them. It was just whispers at first, but then their voices started to get louder, almost like they realized who was in front of them.

“If you ask me, she got off too easy,” one of them whispered.

“Probably cause that Fawcett got to them first. How come he didn’t get detention for stunning them?” the other said back.

Julianne’s hands clenched into fists and Ivory put a cautionary hand on her arm. “Don’t,” she said quietly so the two girls, who they could tell were Slytherins by the way they were talking, couldn’t hear them. “Ignore it.” Julianne knew that Ivory was right, but her hands stayed clenched in fists and she was acutely aware of exactly where her wand sat tucked inside her robes.

“She deserved it, parading around the school like she was something just because she could fly a broom, the filthy half-blood.”

Without a second thought, Julianne snatched her wand out of her robes and spun around, casting a spell before Ivory could stop her. Instantly, Ursula Pritchard’s face started to swell as though she had been stung by a swarm of bees. She dropped her bag and her hands instantly shot to her face as her friend, Matilda Montague, started panicking.

“What is going on here?”

Julianne and Ivory turned to see who was behind them, belatedly recognizing the voice as belonging to Professor Pratt and Julianne attempted to hide her wand, even though the professor had already seen it. Pratt took in the scene for a brief moment before saying, “Ms. Montague, I think it would be best if you took Ms. Pritchard to the hospital wing.” Matilda grabbed Ursula’s arm and started steering her towards the hospital wing, shooting a nasty look at Julianne as they hurried by.

“Ms. Meyers,” she continued, causing Julianne to focus her attention on the professor, cursing internally that she had been caught. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to give you a detention for that little bit of spell work.” She gestured to the space where Ursula and Matilda had been standing just moments before. Julianne bit her lip and nodded, groaning inwardly.

A bit of smile played across Pratt’s face as she started to walk away and just as she passed them, Julianne was sure she heard her whisper, “But it certainly was an excellent Stinging Jinx.”

 

***

 

“Hey, Julianne!”

She stopped and turned, seeing Andrea Cauldwell hurrying to catch up to her. Once she got there, she handed her a piece of rolled up parchment, saying, “Pratt asked me to give this to you.”

“Thanks,” Julianne said, unrolling it as Andrea walked away.

“What is it?” Ivory asked, leaning over to see if she could try and read it. Julianne was quiet as she skimmed through it.

“Are you kidding me?” she complained when she got to the end. “Polishing the trophy room at seven? But we have practice at six!” Ivory snatched the paper out of her friend’s hand.

“Guess you aren’t going, then,” Ivory said as they continued on their waya to the common room.

Julianne shot her a glare. “Thank you, Ivory. Hadn’t figured that out.”

Ivory just gave her a patronizing look before handing her back the parchment. “Sorry.” Julianne snatched it back, stuffing it in her bag. She glared the whole way up to the common room and once they got there, she threw her bag down beside a chair.

“Hey, Fitz!” she called, seeing the third year hurrying down the steps in his Quidditch gear. He paused and looked around, then walked over to her after realizing who had called him. “Can you tell Cameron that I got detention so I won’t be able to make it to practice?” Fitz nodded and continued on his way to the pitch.

Julianne sank down into the chair and sighed, pulling her homework out of her bag. She sat there sulking, pretending to actually get some work done until a little bit before seven when she started making her way down to the trophy room for her detention. As she got to where the detention was going to be held, she saw there were already four other people waiting. A couple of fourth year Hufflepuff girls she vaguely recognized, Jeremiah Bell, a sixth year Ravenclaw, and-

“Well, it’s nice to see a familiar face,” Sirius said as she reached the group. Before Julianne could do more than give him an unfriendly look, Argus Filch, the caretaker, showed up to let them all in.

“No magic,” he grumbled as he handed each of them a rag and polish.

“Like we could forget,” Julianne muttered as she walked past him. She glanced around at the other four who were stuck with her. She had no desire to spend an entire night with the two Hufflepuffs and they looked like they were perfectly content spending the night together, though they were throwing quite a few glances in Jeremiah and Sirius’s direction. Jeremiah was in her House and she did know him slightly, but he was one of Cameron’s friends and judging by the nasty looks he was giving her, she figured spending detention with him would not be a very pleasant experience.

“So it looks like we’re stuck with each other,” Sirius said, appearing at her side.

“Unfortunately,” she grumbled a she walked off to find somewhere to start the polishing. Sirius followed her and she did her best to ignore him as she set to work on some random person’s award.

“Are you still upset with me?” Sirius asked after about five minutes of polishing in silence. Julianne continued to try and ignore him, but Sirius knew how to be annoying when he wanted to be. Every few minutes, he would ask her again in some form the first question and she was able to ignore it for about twenty minutes before. “You know I didn’t think he-”

“Please shut up,” she finally snapped, turning to look at him. “If I wasn’t annoyed with you before, I sure as hell am now.”

Sirius pushed on, ignoring her little outburst. “I just wanted you to know that I wasn’t trying to break you and Cameron up,” he said earnestly.

“Really? Because it sure looked like it from where I was standing,” she said bitterly, going back to scrubbing the award she was on. “You and James and Peter hexing him every chance you got, Remus not doing anything to stop you. You had no right to treat him like that.”

Sirius hesitated, like he was trying to think of something to say that wouldn’t set her off again. He had been on the receiving end of Julianne’s hexes before and it was not something that he cared to make a habit of. “We just wanted to protect you-”

“Protect me?” she said, rounding on him again. “What on earth would I need protecting from?”

Again, Sirius hesitated like he was trying to find the right words. “You were too good for him,” he finally said, not meeting her eyes. “He didn’t deserve you.”

“And why is that your decision to make?” she asked, ignoring the fact that his response in no way answered her question. Her knuckles were white with how hard she was gripping the award. “That isn’t your choice, it’s mine and I happened to think-”

“Look, if I could take it back, I would,” Sirius cut in, having completely abandoned polishing. “But I can’t and I’m sorry. I really am.”

Julianne continued to polish the award, putting it back and picking up another one when she was done. She could see Sirius shifting out of the corner of her eye, but he kept his mouth shut, waiting for her response. “I know,” she finally said, so quietly that he could barely hear it. “I know. But you and James really need to find a better way to show you care.”

Sirius smiled and went back to polishing, obviously sensing that the worst was over. “Yeah, it’s a work in progress.” Julianne smiled and continued her own polishing as they settled into a much more comfortable silence. They continued on like that for a while before Sirius broke the silence.

“So what are you in for?” he asked.

Julianne replied, “Hit Pritchard with a Stinging Jinx and Pratt caught me. She was talking shit about Nettie.” Sirius nodded, seeming unsurprised as her response. While Julianne was not in detention as much as Sirius and James, her short temper did get her into trouble more often than was really necessary. Mostly it was for hexing Slytherins or other people who she thought deserved it. She was just a little bit better at being subtle about it. But only a little bit.

“What did you guys do this time?” she asked Sirius. “I’m assuming they saw fit to split you all up again?”

Sirius nodded, a grin on his face. “Yeah, they don’t seem to trust us together,” he admitted. The grin slipped off his face as he continued. “We had a bit of a run in with Rosier and Avery during Care of Magical Creatures. Made sure they got what they deserved.” Julianne smiled despite herself. She was pretty sure the whole school had heard how they dealt with the two Slytherins, taking turns hexing the two until Professor Kettleburn put a stop to it.

“Thank you,” she said quietly and Sirius nodded in response, not needing to ask what she meant by it. The two of them fell back into silence, one of them saying something every now and then, but for the most part, the rest of detention passed without any further conversation.

As they headed out of the trophy room, Julianne and Sirius fell into step together as they made their way back to their respective dormitories. Just before they reached the spot where they would have to break off, Sirius turned to her, asking, “So are we good then?” She glanced over at him, seeing the hopeful expression on his face.

She looked back down, smiling. “Yeah, I think we are.”

 

***

 

The Christmas spirit was almost infectious by the second to last day of term. The decorations had been up for week now and with the war going on almost everyone was eager to get home to see their families. Not many of the students were extremely focused on their classes, except of course, everyone trying to finish their last minute homework.

Julianne sat in the library, desperately trying to finish her History of Magic assignment before class the next day. Cameron hadn’t let up on the intensity of their practices, even with the holidays coming up, so she was constantly exhausted when she got back to finish her homework. She kept blinking, trying to stay awake as she wrote. It wasn’t even that late, but the long hours were starting to catch up with her.

“You still here?”

She looked up from her essay to see Sirius standing there holding a book. He came over and sat down across from her. “Do you enjoy following me around?” Julianne asked as he got comfortable. “Because there is no way you of all people need to be in the library this much.”

He held up the book he had been carrying and she saw it was on whatever they had been learning in Herbology. “Last minute studying,” he said with a smile. “Much like you seem to be doing.”

“Yeah, don’t remind me,” she grumbled, looking back down at her homework. “I’m so close to being done, I only have about six inches left.” Unfortunately, right as she finished talking, Madame Pince came around the corner on her mission to kick any stragglers left out of her library. Julianne quickly packed everything up as she and Sirius were rather unceremoniously shooed out.

“Always so kind that one,” Julianne muttered, still trying to straighten out everything in her bag.

“At least she’s consistent,” Sirius commented. Julianne just looked over at him, completely unamused. “Sorry,” he said, looking ahead at where he was going, occasionally glancing up.

“What are you looking for?” Julianne asked around the fifth time it happened.

“Mistletoe,” he explained, glancing down at her. “Don’t fancy getting caught under it with just anyone.”

Julianne raised her eyebrow, intrigued by his choice of words. “You mean there’s someone you would want to get caught under it with?” Sirius faltered at her question and Julianne couldn’t help but smile. It usually took a lot to crack Sirius’s carefree attitude, but lately, she found that she could do it quite easily and she may have been enjoying it a bit too much.

“No, I didn’t mean that,” he backtracked, ignoring her smirk. “I just meant I don’t really want to get stuck having to snog some third year Hufflepuff because I didn’t notice some mistletoe.”

Julianne held up her hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. I get it,” she relented. “Calm down, it was just a joke.”

Sirius lapsed into silence and Julianne looked down at as they continued to walk towards the Ravenclaw common room. She hadn’t asked him, but she knew that he was planning on making sure she made it back okay. Nettie had been let out of the hospital wing a little over a week ago, but everyone was still a little on edge about it.

“So what about you?” Sirius asked after a brief silence. “I’m guessing you’d have the same issue.”

“Why?’ she asked somewhat suspiciously. Sirius hesitated again before answering.

“Well…because,” he fumbled. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw him a deep breath like he needed to steady himself before blurting out, “Because you’re gorgeous and any guy would be lucky to be with you.”

It was Julianne’s turn to falter and she could feel her face start to heat up as it flushed. She had been told she was pretty before and, even though she never flaunted it in everyone’s face, she definitely had embraced it. But for some reason, hearing it from Sirius of all people made her instantly self-conscious. “Thank you,” she said quietly as they turned another corner. Almost involuntarily, she started rambling. “But being basically a sister to James Potter is a bit of a deterrent. Most guys don’t willingly put themselves through that kind of torture.”

Sirius turned to look at her again. She glanced over, noticing the strange look on his face as he opened his mouth like he was going to say something. Before he could get anything out, the two of them were stopped in their tracks when they found their way blocked what seemed like an invisible wall.

“What the…,” Julianne said, reaching out and trying to find out what was in their way. Sirius reached out too and when he hit resistance, he immediately looked up.

“Uh, Julianne,” he said. She looked over at him and he pointed up in response. Following his gesture, she looked up, already having a sinking feeling about what she might see.

Sure enough, a sprig of mistletoe hung right above where they were standing. It had obviously been enchanted so that it prevented the people underneath from getting away without a kiss. Julianne looked back down and met Sirius’s eyes. In that brief second, she could see he was thinking the same thing as her.

“No,” she said, immediately moving away from him. “No, I’m not doing it.”

“It’s just one kiss, Julianne,” Sirius prodded, not making a move to get closer to her.

Julianne shook her head. “No, I’m not going to kiss you.”

Sirius turned away from her so she couldn’t see his face. “It’s just one kiss,” he repeated. “I’m pretty sure that’s much more preferable than sitting in this corridor and waiting for someone else to come along.” Julianne stayed quiet and Sirius turned around, a look of desperation on his face. “Please, Julianne,” he said much quieter than before. She looked up and met his gaze, trying to ignore the nagging voice in the back of her head saying that this was what she had been dreaming of for over two years before she convinced herself she was over him. _And let_ _’s face it_ , she thought. _That was a losing battle from the start._

Eventually, she looked away, focusing on her hands. “Fine,” she said. “One kiss.”

She looked back up at him. That was all the prompting he needed as he started to walk over to her, stopping when he had gotten close enough. She could feel her heart pounding and her eyes were locked onto his. Sirius slowly lifted his hands and put them on either side of her face. He leaned down, pausing when he was just a few inches away from her face. Almost involuntarily, she put her hands on his chest. Her head was spinning and despite her best efforts, her breath had started coming quicker and shallower. Without looking, Sirius closed the gap between their lips. Julianne closed her eyes at the last second.

It was nothing like kissing Cameron, not that there was really any competition between the two. She couldn’t explain how, but this was definitely better. Without even thinking, her hands slid up and around his neck, her fingers burying themselves in his hair. She pulled herself closer to him and she could feel his hands slip down from her face to her shoulders and then even lower. She deepened the kiss and could feel him respond rather enthusiastically. It had changed from one little innocent kiss between friends to something much different, but neither one of them were complaining. His hands had made it to her hips and he pulled her even closer, if that was even possible at that point. The next thing Julianne knew, they had made it from the middle of the corridor over to the side and she felt her back press up against the wall. The hallway could have exploded and it was doubtful that they would have noticed.

Just as soon as it had started, Julianne pulled back. The rational part of her brain had just seemed to register that she was kissing Sirius Black, a guy she had known since they were eleven, the same Sirius Black that she had had a crush on since she was twelve. She pushed away from him, her eyes still locked onto his. She was sure her own expression mirrored his: shocked, but excited, like Christmas had come a week early that year. She slowly moved back and picked up her bag from where it had been dropped and began to walk away, no longer restricted by the mistletoe. Sirius still hadn’t moved from where she had left him and he hadn’t taken his eyes off of her. She paused and she saw a hopeful expression flicker across his face.

“Don’t tell anyone,” she said, just loud enough for him to hear before turning and taking off towards her common room.


	5. The Boy Next Door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So, Julianne,” Mrs. Potter started. “Did you manage to find yourself a boyfriend yet?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to bansheehale for the awesome chapter title!

Christmas had never been Julianne’s favorite holiday. Sure, the snow was nice and almost everyone was always cheery, but being forced to spend that much time with family wasn’t exactly her idea of fun. Both of her mother’s parents had died when Julianne was really young and her father’s parents didn’t like to travel. She knew she had a bunch of cousins, but she had never met any of them. Because of that, Christmas was usually just her, her mother, and her dad, but the last few years, even that had changed.

“You don’t have to do that,” she heard her mom say. She glanced over at her closed door. Her parents were right down the hall, but she could hear them plain as day. She wasn’t old enough to use magic outside of school and she didn’t have the heart to ask either one of them to put a charm on her door to block out the noise.

“I do, Lila,” her father said in his deep voice. “If we want to be able to afford-”

“You don’t need to work on Christmas to afford this,” her mother said, more authority in her voice this time. “That argument hasn’t ever held water and you know it.”

Julianne clenched her fists and got up off her bed, throwing a couple of things in her bag before quietly opening her door and slipping out, taking care not to make any noise so her parents didn’t ask where she was going. Not that they wouldn’t know when they saw she was gone, but it was nice to have a head start. She snuck down the stairs, being careful to avoid the creaky ones and slipped through the kitchen and out the back door.

She walked across the yard, over to the fence that separated their small yard from the Potters’. She threw her bag over first and then easily climbed over after it, years of experience making it almost graceful. Once she was on the other side, she grabbed her bag and made her way over to the bench that sat under a huge tree not far from the house. She had no idea why Mr. and Mrs. Potter had decided to put it there, but it had turned out to be quite useful to her. She walked over to the bench, brushing off the thin layer of snow that had accumulated on it and sitting down, spreading her things out. She glanced briefly back over to her house before looking back down and continuing what she was working on before.

The wind picked up slightly and she shivered, pulling her coat tighter around her. It had been about twenty minutes and her parents had either not noticed she was gone yet or they figured she would be fine where she was and hadn’t come looking for. Either way, she sat on the bench for a while, ignoring the cold and focusing on the book she was reading. Eventually, she heard someone walking towards her, but she ignored it, keeping her head in her book. The bench creaked a little as they sat down and she didn’t need to look over to know who it was.

“So what is it this time?” James asked her as she continued to read her book.

“The usual,” she mumbled after a brief hesitation, still not looking up from her book. “Dad’s working on Christmas. Again.”

James didn’t say anything and Julianne didn’t seem to want to elaborate any further. They sat quietly for a minute before James spoke again. “Well, Mum saw you come out here, so now you’re required to come in for dinner.”

“I can’t, I should go back,” Julianne started, throwing a glance back over to her house.

“I don’t make the rules,” James said, standing up and turning to look back at her. “So are you coming?” Julianne paused for a second before closing her book and stuffing it in her bag, getting up as she did so. She put the bag over her shoulder and started walking to the house, James right beside her.

Almost as soon as she walked in the door, Mrs. Potter appeared and pulled her into a hug. “Always nice to see you, dear,” she said as she let Julianne go, hurrying back to the kitchen. Julianne smiled despite herself, setting her coat and bag down by the door. “Come on in you two,” Mrs. Potter called from the dining room. “Everything is ready!”

Julianne had spent so much time over at their house that it was almost too easy to slip into a familiar pattern. They all sat down and started passing the food around until everyone had gotten a full plate. “How’s your mum doing?” Mrs. Potter asked once everyone had gotten a bite. “She holding up still?”

Julianne gripped her fork a little tighter, but when she answered, her voice was even. “She’s good,” she said before taking a bite. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Mrs. Potter frown, but she was stopped from saying anything by her husband jumping in.

“So, classes going well?” Mr. Potter cut in, ignoring his wife’s pointed looks.

Julianne nodded, thankful for the change of subject. “Yeah, fine,” she answered after swallowing the bite she had just taken.

“Even Transfiguration?” he asked, a knowing look on his face.

Julianne ignored both Mrs. Potter’s and James’ protests at the question and answered, “Barely, but yeah.”

“You don’t just ask people things like that at the dinner table,” Mrs. Potter scolded while Julianne tried to hide her amusement and James pretended not to notice.

“Alright, alright,” Mr. Potter conceded, holding up his hands in defeat. “New topic. How’s Quidditch going this year? Both teams starting off strong?” Julianne started laughing as James just scowled and stabbed moodily at his food. “That good, huh?” his dad asked, looking between them. “Who’s on top?”

“Ravenclaw,” Julianne said smugly, throwing a glance at James.

Mr. Potter turned to his son. “And Gryffindor?” James briefly looked up and mumbled something under his breath. “What was that?” his dad asked again. When James didn’t say anything, Julianne cut in.

“Dead last,” she said, a huge grin on her face. James turned and glared at her, opening his mouth to say something.

“Alright, no fights over sports at the table,” Mrs. Potter cut in. “You have plenty of time for that at school.” Julianne continued to smile as the conversation turned away from school teams and towards the international stage.  The three of them managed to talk about Quidditch throughout the rest of dinner and the subject didn’t change until their house elf brought out dessert.

“So, Julianne,” Mrs. Potter started. Julianne looked up as she scooped up a bite of cake. “Did you manage to find yourself a boyfriend yet?” Her hand froze with her fork halfway to her mouth and she just stared at Mrs. Potter. She was vaguely aware of both James and Mr. Potter protesting, but her mind had already slipped back to the day before term ended. All break she had tried to forget just how much she had enjoyed it, but she was failing miserably. Fortunately, James chose that moment to intervene.

“She did,” he said, elbowing her to get her attention.           

“Oh, are you still together?” his mother asked. When Julianne didn’t answer again, James kicked her under the table.

“Uh, no,” she said, trying to drag her mind out from under the mistletoe. “We broke up a couple weeks ago.”

“This one didn’t have anything to do with that, did he?” Mr. Potter asked, pointing at his son. “Him and Sirius, I wouldn’t put it past them.”

“No, uh, they didn’t,” she said distractedly, trying (and failing) to ignore how her mind reacted to just his name. She was having trouble forming a coherent thought. “We just weren’t the right match.” _Like you and Sirius?_ the voice in the back of her head said. She looked down, trying to ignore that nagging voice she hadn’t heard since she had convinced herself she didn’t like him more than a friend. When she glanced back up, she caught a glimpse of her watch.

“I should probably get back,” she said, standing up quickly. “My mum is probably wondering when I’m getting back.” Mrs. Potter started to protest, but Julianne talked over her. “Thank you for dinner.” Before they could say anything else, she had already moved to the door and grabbed her coat and bag, slipping out the door.

It had been a while since Sirius had been able to get to her like that and he hadn’t even been anywhere near them. One kiss and she was that thirteen year old girl who had a massive crush on her best friend’s best friend and she hated feeling like that. She may have been able to get a hold of herself before, but one thing was for certain; she was definitely not over Sirius Black.

 

***

 

Christmas passed rather uneventfully. As usual, Julianne had spent the entire day alone with her mother, but the two of them had made the best of it. By the time her dad made it home, the kitchen was full of baked goods and Julianne and her mom were sitting by the fire, her mom telling stories of her times at Hogwarts.

“I can’t believe how ridiculous this war has gotten,” he said without greeting, hanging up his coat beside the door.

“Merry Christmas to you too, Dad,” Julianne muttered, grabbing another biscuit. Her mother gave her a look, but her dad didn’t seem to have heard.

“Our own neighbors taking in one of those pureblood maniacs, it’s insane,” he continued, coming in to sit on the couch near them.

“Honey, what are you talking about?” her mother said. She slowly got up from the floor and went to sit beside her husband. Julianne had instantly shot to her feet and gone to the window as though she would be able to see whoever her dad was walking about.

“The Potters,” her dad said and Julianne froze with her hand on the curtain, her mind going a million miles a minute. “I saw one of those Blacks being welcomed in like family.” _Sirius_ , she thought and she turned around to glare at her dad.

“He’s not like the rest of his family,” she defended. “I’ve told you that.”

Her dad just looked up at her and she saw the resignation in her mother’s eyes. This wasn’t the first time they had had this argument. “I thought I’ve told you I don’t want you being friends-”

“He’s James’ best friend, Dad,” Julianne interrupted. “Of course we’re friends. It’s not a switch you can turn on and off.” Her dad started talking over her, but she pushed on. “Besides, you don’t have to be his friend to know he’s different. He’s in Gryffindor of all Houses, you can’t get much-”

“Alright, that’s enough,” her mother said, standing up to step between her daughter and husband. “It is Christmas, can we please save this for another time?”

Julianne met her father’s eyes one more time before brushing past him and heading up the stairs to her room, ignoring the conversation she knew was going on between her parents. As soon as she got in her room, she dug for a piece of parchment on her desk and scribbled a quick note.

_Dad just came home and said he saw Sirius moving in. What is going on?_

_-J_

She flung open her window and glanced around, looking for the family owl. Fortunately, Digby was sitting in one of the trees in their yard and a quick whistle brought him up to her window. “Take this to James,” she said and watched as it flew over to the house next door. She turned back to her desk and sat down. The homework they had been assigned over break sat untouched on the desk, but she pushed it out of her way to put her elbows down on the desk, resting her head in her hands. Arguing with her dad was becoming more frequent lately, even with her being at Hogwarts most of the year. It wasn’t that she enjoyed it, but as she got older, she started realizing how set in his ways he was and how much he refused to see the good in people.

A sharp rap on her window caused her to jump and when she looked over, she saw Digby sitting there with a note tied to his leg. She rushed over and threw open the window, untying the note from the owl’s outstretched leg. As soon as she took it off, he flew back to the tree and she closed the window behind her.

_Ran away from home, tell you more when we know._

“So what’s the story?”

Julianne jumped and spun around. Her mom stood in the doorway, obviously having finished with her conversation downstairs. “Does James know anything?” she asked, moving into the room.

“Uh, just that he ran away,” Julianne said, glancing down at the note again, like it would have changed in the few seconds she had looked away from it. Her mom walked over and gently took the note out of her hand before sitting down in the desk chair.

“You were worried, weren’t you,” she said after a few seconds. “You still are.”

“What,” Julianne said, sitting down in the chair by her window.

Her mom just gave her a small smile before putting the note down on Julianne’s desk. “So why did you and Cameron break up?” she asked. Immediately, Julianne turned to meet her mother’s gaze.

“What?” she said again, this time actually paying attention to what her mom was saying.

“You mentioned in your letters that you were dating him, but then you never said anything about him after about three weeks ago,” her mom explained. “So why did you two break up?”

Julianne hesitated, throwing a few glances out the window as she laced her fingers together. “We just weren’t a good match,” she finally mumbled, leaning back in her chair and putting her arms around her knees. “He just decided we were better as friends.”

Her mom smiled and also leaned back, crossing her arms. “Do you think that?” When Julianne gave her a confused look, she continued, “Do you think that you’d be better as friends?” Julianne just shrugged, looking back out the window. Her mom glanced at some of the pictures on her desk, one of them catching her attention. “Or was there something else?”

Julianne just shook her head, still not looking over at her mother. Her mum didn’t say anything, just gave her a knowing smile. She got up from the chair slowly and walked over to Julianne, putting a hand on her shoulder before walking out of the room. Julianne frowned as her mother left and she looked out of the window again, like she could somehow figure out everything by just willing it to happen.

 

***

 

“For the last time, I don’t know anything! Now, can you please just leave me alone?”

The two Ravenclaw fourth years gave Julianne a frightened look and quickly hurried back down the table to where they had been sitting. Ivory frowned as her friend angrily stabbed at her lunch. “Can’t you be a little nicer?” she asked, earning herself a glare.

“What, I don’t know anything,” she said icily. “Just because I live next door to them doesn’t mean I automatically know every detail about their lives.”

Since Christmas, Julianne had hardly spoken a word to either James or Sirius and that wasn’t for lack of trying. The notes that she sent were always sent back with the same response ( _I_ _’ll let you know more when I know_ ) and every time she had ended up in the Potter’s backyard, she never saw anyone. The feeling that they were avoiding talking to her was further reinforced on the train ride back to school. James, Remus, and Peter had formed a sort of protective barrier around Sirius, sealing off their compartment and not letting anyone else around him. By lunch at the first day of term, almost everyone had noticed something was wrong.

“Look, it’s not her fault people can’t mind their own business,” Nettie butted in, taking a bite of her lunch. Julianne looked over to the Gryffindor table again, seeing the four boys sitting off by themselves.

Ivory followed her gaze. “Why are you so upset about this?’ she asked. “It’s not like they always tell you everything.”

Julianne looked back over at her friend, saying, “I know.” She looked back down at her food, pushing it all around with her fork. “It’s just…it’s just bothering me.” Ivory and Nettie shared a glance, but neither of them said anything to Julianne.

As the week wore on, it was obvious that something big had happened to cause him to run away. Classes became less interesting and the amount of pranks pulled were reduced drastically. Even the amount of hexing the hallway had slowed down. The teachers seemed to take that opportunity to pile on more and more schoolwork Julianne was barely keeping up, completely giving up on making it down to breakfast and even skipping lunch most days. She fell even further behind in her schoolwork, if that was even possible. Ivory and Nettie tried to help, but she just couldn’t focus on anything. Her grades started to slip and more than once Cameron had threatened to throw her off the pitch if she didn’t get her head straight.

“Are you okay?” Kassie asked as she sat down next to Julianne in the library later that week. “Ivory is worried, but she’d never say anything.” Julianne looked up from her essay, pushing aside some hair that had fallen in her face.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said quietly, going back to her essay and letting the hair fall back down into her face.

“Really?” Kassie asked. “Because you look like you’re about to just fall apart if someone just looked at you wrong.” Julianne didn’t look up. “Seriously, Julianne, what is going on?”

“I don’t know,” she finally said, a little more forcefully than she originally intended. “I don’t know, Kassie, I’m just stressed about everything.” Kassie just sat there, unsure if she should say anything or not. Julianne started to pack up all her things. “Just tell Ivory and Nettie and whoever else to just let me figure this out on my own.” Before Kassie could say anything else, Julianne stood up and walked out of the library, having no idea of where she was headed.

She had made it pretty far before she turned a corner and ran straight into someone. She stumbled backwards, putting her hand on the wall to steady herself. “Where are you going in such a hurry?” James asked, tucking something into his back pocket.

Julianne barely glanced up at him before trying to walk around him, saying, “Nowhere, I’m, uh…” James grabbed her arm as she went past him, causing her to actually stop and look at him.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked, instantly going from joking to concerned. Julianne looked down, not meeting his eyes.

“Nothing,” she mumbled, keeping her eyes fixed on the ground. “I just have a lot of homework to get to.” She shifted her arm that James had a hold of, trying to get him to let go of it. He let go, but immediately put his hand around her shoulder and turned her around to so she was facing the same direction he was.

“I’m sure it can wait long enough to take a quick trip to the kitchen,” he said, gripping her shoulder tighter as he steered her towards the kitchen. “I know you weren’t at dinner and I doubt that you went to lunch either.” Julianne didn’t put up a fight, knowing that there would be no changing James’s mind. He didn’t say much on the way, occasionally making a comment that Julianne either give a one word answer or ignore completely.

He didn’t ask any more questions until they made it to the kitchen and the house elves had fussed over them. They ended up sitting against the wall by the entrance, each of them with a plate of food in their laps. “So what is going on with you?” James asked as Julianne took small bites of her ice cream. She didn’t answer right away, focused intently on her dessert.

“I told you, it’s nothing,” she mumbled, taking another bite of her ice cream.

“You and I both know that’s bullshit,” James said, abandoning his own plate. “You can get Ivory and Kassie and Nettie to leave you alone, but I know you better than that and you are not okay. So what is going on?”

“I don’t know,” Julianne snapped, still not looking up. She could feel tears starting to form in her eyes and she blinked them back. “I’m just stressed about school and stressed about Quidditch and stressed and no one will leave me alone.”

James didn’t say anything after that and Julianne continued to look down at her ice cream, stirring the melted bits of ice cream in her bowl. After a minute or so, James started talking again. “He just showed up at our door covered in cuts and bruises. He didn’t tell us anything and still hasn’t talked about it much.”

Julianne’s head whipped around, frowning as she finally looked over to where James was sitting beside her. “That’s not what I…,” she started to say, trailing off as he gave her a knowing smile.

“I know,” he said as he got up, grabbing the plate filled with food. “But it helped, didn’t it?”

Julianne opened her mouth to say something, but then stopped as she processed what he had said. _Well, that_ _’s one less thing to worry about_ , she thought as James walked back towards the entrance.

Julianne smiled as he reached the door. “Hey, James.” He paused, looking back at her. “Maybe if Lily knew you could actually be a caring human being she might give you a chance.” James smiled and shook his head, continuing on his way out of the kitchen. Julianne looked back down at her half-melted ice cream and set it down, making her way through the house elves to get back to the common room, feeling slightly better than she had ten minutes ago.


	6. Hogsmeade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I never said anything about feelings,” he said, the look of confusion slowly turning into a grin.
> 
> _Well, shit._

By the end of January, everything seemed to have gone back to normal. The Gryffindor boys were back to their usual tricks, much to some of the other students’ annoyance. The chances of getting hexed in the hallway had risen back to their normal levels and Kassie had even come storming into the library one night, complaining about flying furniture or something.

Quidditch practices had become brutal since Slytherin had beaten Ravenclaw in the last match. They only won by two goals, but it was enough to put them ahead in the points and Cameron was determined not to let it happen again. He had ordered extra practices, bringing them up to six times a week and had extended the practice hours on Saturdays. While that didn’t seem to be a problem for most of the team, Julianne, Nettie, and Bishop were starting to show the strain of dealing with O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s along with the insane amount of practices.

Julianne and Nettie were walking back up to the common room after practicing for three-and-a-half hours in winds that almost blew everyone off their brooms, complaining about the amount of homework both of them had left. They had just turned the corner to start the trek up to the Tower when someone called Julianne’s name, causing them to turn around.

“Hey, can I, uh…,” Sirius started once he caught up to them. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Yeah, sure,” she said casually, her hand instantly reaching up to twirl her hair, but, realizing that it was up in a ponytail, she quickly acted as though she was tucking a stray piece behind her ear. Sirius glanced over at Nettie and Julianne looked over too. Nettie glanced between them, a smile slowly growing on her face.

“I’ll see you back at the common room,” she said to Julianne, her smile now a full blown smirk and before Julianne could say anything, she was already gone.

She turned back to Sirius, fidgeting with her hands. She opened her mouth to say something, but Sirius grabbed her hand and pulled her back down the corridor. “What, no, Sirius, I have homework…” She trailed off as he stopped and ducked into a secret passage way, dragging her along too. She went to protest again, but he cut her off.

“We need to talk about what happened before the holidays,” he said, getting straight to the point.

Julianne fidgeted again, looking down so she didn’t meet his eyes. “I think we covered it pretty well,” she mumbled, crossing her arms and glancing back towards the entrance of the passageway. She was extremely aware of how close they were; the passage wasn’t exactly roomy. She tightened her arms against her stomach, still trying to keep from looking at Sirius.

“Julianne, I’m serious,” he started, but she interrupted.

“Since when do you want to talk about feelings?” she asked, finally turning to look at him. When she did, she noticed the confused look on his face.

“I never said anything about feelings,” he said, the look of confusion slowly turning into a grin.

_Well, shit._

“I...I, uh, just…uh, assumed,” she stammered, resisting the urge to look away. “Is-isn’t that why you, uh, wanted to talk?” The grin on his face had gotten even bigger, if that were possible. She could swear that the passage was getting smaller, but that may have just been her own mind zeroing in on how close they were. She uncrossed her arms “Alright, obviously, I was wrong, so we’re just going to forget that.”

“Oh, no,” Sirius said, grinning like a fool. “You brought it up. Did you need to talk about some feelings, Julianne?”

She could feel her cheeks heating up and the close proximity was not helping her thought process. “Why would I?” she asked, trying to come up with a response. “It didn’t mean anything, end of story.” _Liar_ , the nagging voice said. As she looked down, she noticed the grin on Sirius’s face falter, but she ignored it.

“Right, didn’t mean anything,” he said and she looked back up at the tone of his voice. He had looked down too and there was something she couldn’t quite place in his expression.

“It was just so we didn’t have to sit there all night,” she said, more to justify it herself than anything else. “It was…self-preservation.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she knew it was a mistake. Sirius looked up at her, the smile back on his face and the expression from before gone.

“Self-preservation?” he teased and if she wasn’t blushing before, she sure was now.

“Alright, I’m going to leave before I say anything else,” she said, ducking her head and making her way out of the passage way before she said anything else that she regretted.

“Well, whatever you thought that kiss was,” Sirius started to say as she left. She stopped and turned back to look at him. He was still smiling and he had his hands shoved in his pockets. “You certainly seemed to enjoy it.”

She rolled her eyes and turned away again, hoping he didn’t notice the flush that had come to her cheeks yet again. “You wish, Black,” she shot back, walking away without turning back to see his reaction.

 

***

 

During the first week of February, notices started going up in the common rooms giving the date of the next Hogsmeade trip, which gave a welcome distraction from schoolwork and the reports of the escalating war that continued to pour into the castle. Not that anyone was really surprised. February 14th fell on a Saturday that year and most of the female population of Hogwarts was panicking about trying to find a date in time. The closer it got to Valentine’s Day, the more desperate people got. It wasn’t just the girls starting to throw themselves at everyone though. Some of the boys started to get in on it too.

At dinner on the Tuesday before the trip, Julianne was sitting with Ivory and Nettie when there was a brief commotion next to them and someone was rather unceremoniously shoved into the seat across from Julianne. “Oh, uh, hi, Roy,” she said once she recognized who it was. He threw a glare at his friends behind him, who were trying to keep from laughing while they encouraged him, before turning back to smile sheepishly at her.

“Sorry about them,” he said, completely ignoring Ivory and Nettie, who were giving both Roy and his friends looks. “I just came over because I needed to ask you something.”

“Is this a dare?” Julianne asked, taking a bite of her dinner. Nettie had to duck her head to keep from laughing, while Ivory just smiled slightly. Roy stopped whatever he was going to say, staring at her with a shocked expression. “Is this a dare?”

“N-no, I just wanted to ask if you would go to Hogsmeade with me on Saturday,” he said in a rush, his face starting to turn red. Julianne glared at the boys behind him, one of whom had started to laugh at his friend’s discomfort.

“Shut up, Ackerley, at least he had the balls to ask,” she snapped, causing Nettie to almost choke on her sip of pumpkin juice and Ivory to cover her mouth to hide her silent laughter. Roy seemed to gain a bit more confidence at Julianne’s comment, a smile starting to grow on his face. Julianne turned back to Roy, her expression softening. “Sorry, Roy, you’re really nice, but…”

“Yeah, I figured that’d be the answer,” Roy said as he stood up, not bothering to wait for the rest of her response. “Well, have fun with Black on Saturday.”

That was the tipping point for Ivory and Nettie. Ivory had tears streaming down her face and she was shaking as she attempted to keep her laughter quiet. Nettie had given up and pretended to drop her fork so she could duck under the table to get it. “Wait, what?” Julianne said after she processed what Roy had said, putting down her fork in the process.

Roy stopped and turned back towards her. “Yeah, isn’t that why you said no?” he asked, a confused expression on his face. He glanced at his friends and when they nodded in agreement, he continued, “I figured I’d ask on the off chance that he hadn’t asked you yet.”

“Uh, no, I said no because I didn’t want a date,” she said, still trying to sort out her reeling thoughts. “Where did you get that idea?”

The confused expression remained on Roy’s face as he answered, “I thought it was obvious. He definitely has a thing for you, you haven’t noticed?” Julianne just stared at him open mouthed, slowly processing what Roy was saying. He apparently took her silence as an answer and started back down the Ravenclaw table, leaving Julianne with Ivory and Nettie.

“Wow, I needed that,” Ivory said as she caught her breath, wiping the tears off her face. Nettie had finally resurfaced, but she didn’t seem like she was going to be able to form a coherent sentence anytime soon.

“Did you know about that?” Julianne asked to no one in particular, staring over at the Gryffindor table. Ivory and Nettie shared a glance.

“About Roy? No,” Ivory said, a smile on her face. It grew when Julianne finally tore her eyes away from the Gryffindor table to glare at Ivory.

“You can be really unobservant sometimes, you know that?” Nettie said, recovering enough to take a bite of her dinner.

“So both of you knew?” Julianne accused, ignoring Nettie’s jab. “Am I the only one who didn’t?”

Nettie shook her head as she took another bite. “No, of course not,” she said. “I’m pretty sure Chloe and Ariella haven’t noticed.”

“Ok, that doesn’t make me feel better,” Julianne muttered, stabbing at her food angrily. Chloe Passano and Ariella Entwhistle were two fourth year Gryffindors who had made it their mission to get Sirius to go out with them. Obviously they were failing miserably, but it definitely was not a compliment to be compared to them.

“Julianne, don’t worry about it,” Ivory said, not even looking up from her food. “It’s not like it matters that much. You said you were over him, right?” She looked up at that point, an annoyingly smug look on her face, like she caught Julianne in a lie.

_No you_ _’re not_. “Yeah, but I still should have noticed,” Julianne defended after a brief pause. Nettie rolled her eyes and she and Ivory went back to their dinner, ignoring Julianne’s comments.

For the next three days, all she could think about was what Roy and her friends had said, even the daily reports of the war barely taking her mind off of it. The more she thought about it, the more she realized she had noticed Sirius acting differently around her before the Christmas holidays, but she hadn’t thought anything of it. Almost unconsciously, she avoided Sirius and his friends, at least as much as she could outside of classes.

It was freezing the day of the Hogsmeade trip and everyone was bundled against the cold as they made the trek down to the village. Julianne, Ivory, and Kassie followed the crowd of couples and group dates, Kassie shooting looks at all of them as they passed. “You know, I love you guys, but I would much rather be spending Valentine’s Day with a date than with you,” she said as they reached the village.

Ivory shook her head at her friend’s dramatics while Julianne said, “So you would rather be stuck in Madame Puddifoot’s all day than go to Honeydukes and the Three Broomsticks with us?”

“Yes!” Kassie answered as they got closer to the pub. “Because that would mean that I actually had a date.”

“Yes, because your last date just went so well,” Julianne shot back as she and Kassie made their way through the crowd of students to find an open table while Ivory fought her way over to get drinks for all of them. Kassie glared at her as they quickly stole a table out from under a group of Hufflepuffs.

“That was not my fault,” she defended. “Would you have guessed that Bishop Stebbins’ little brother would be the most socially awkward person on the planet?”

“Yes,” Ivory said as she set down their drinks and pulled up a chair. “Have you actually met Bishop?”

Julianne laughed. “I don’t know how Mara stands it. The tall, dark, and quiet routine seems like it would get old after a while.”

“Why would you even go out with Declan in the first place?” Ivory asked, taking a sip of her butterbeer. “He’s not exactly the guy everyone is dying to go out with.”

“Like you can talk, Ivory,” Kassie shot back. Julianne just sat there and smiled. It wasn’t often that the three of them got to spend time together outside of homework, so when they did, it was interesting to say the least. “You’ve never had a date, hell, I don’t think you’ve ever even told us if you liked anyone.”

“Nope, never,” Julianne added, taking another sip of her drink as Ivory threw helpless glances at both of them. “Come on, Ivory. You know all about Kassie’s failed relationships and my ridiculous crush, time to give us something.”

“Well, I don’t have anything to give you,” she said, her face starting to turn bright red. She started to fiddle with her bottle, pushing it between her hands.

“Oh, no, you do not get out of it that easily,”’ Kassie said, sitting up in her seat and leaning forward. “Come on, spill. You’ve never fancied anyone? Anyone at all?” Ivory looked down at the table, mumbling something in audible.

“That would be a yes,” Julianne said, sitting up like Kassie. “I know that look. Alright, Kas, time to start guessing.”

Kassie put her hand to her chin, like she was thinking hard. “Okay, so let’s narrow it down. No Slytherins, you’d be insane to fancy one of them. Nothing below fourth year, either.”

“Alright, so seventh year?” Julianne started listing, keeping an eye on Ivory’s reactions. “Sixth year? Fifth ye-oh, so he’s in our year,” she said, noticing Ivory grip her bottle a little tighter.

“So House,” Kassie said, her eyes also focused on the blonde. “Ravenclaw? Hufflepuff? Gryffindor?’

“Oh, my god, he’s in Gryffindor,” Julianne cut in, noticing Ivory glance up for a very brief second. “That means you like one of-”

“Well, long time no see,” James said as he sat down next to Julianne, pulling up a chair.

“We literally had a class together yesterday,” she said as the other three filled into the empty spots between the girls. She was extremely aware of Sirius pulling a chair up next to her, but she quickly glanced over to Ivory to see if she could figure out which one of the boys she liked.

“Minor details,” he said, waving his hand in dismissal. Julianne and Kassie shared a brief glance before both of them looked over at Ivory, who seemed to be determined not to look up and give the two of them a hint.

“I feel like we interrupted something,” Remus said after none of the girls made an attempt at conversation.

“Probably confessing their undying love for us,” Sirius said. Julianne and Kassie both looked at each other again, Kassie drank the last of her butterbeer to keep from laughing. Ivory also took a sip of her drink, but that seemed more like it was to keep from giving anything away.

 “You got us,” Julianne said, still not looking away from Ivory. “Kassie just couldn’t keep her feelings for you a secret anymore.” The whole table laughed and Kassie just rolled her eyes at Julianne.

“I’m flattered, Bones,” Sirius started, “but you aren’t exactly my type.” It was Julianne’s turn to take a sip of her drink. She looked down at the table as she set her drink down.

“Isn’t your type just willing, Sirius?” Peter chipped in from his spot between Ivory and Kassie. The lighthearted energy immediately left the table as everyone turned to stare at Peter. He glanced between all of them and seemed to shrink in his seat as he realized what he said. After a short, awkward silence, Remus cleared his throat.

“So, drinks?” he said, trying to break the tension.

“I’ll grab some,” Sirius said, only loud enough for their table to hear. Everyone dug around and passed over some money as Sirius stood up. “Julianne, can you help me carry them?”

“Yeah, sure,” she said as she stood up, still slightly distracted by Peter’s comment. It wasn’t like she didn’t know about Sirius’s reputation, exaggerated as it may have been. But she never really considered that she was part of that now and she wasn’t quite sure how she felt about that.

“Julianne.” She snapped out of her thoughts and looked back up at Sirius. He held out three of the drinks to her and gave her a look like that wasn’t the first time he had tried to get her attention.

“Oh, sorry,” she said quickly, taking the drinks while he grabbed the others. They started walking back to the table, but Sirius slowed down before they reached it. Julianne looked up at him with a questioning expression.

“Don’t worry about what Peter said,” he said and she had to strain to hear him above the noise of the pub, immediately looking forward again once she figured out what he said. She was pretty sure she hadn’t said any of what she was thinking out loud, but somehow he managed to read her thoughts. Right before they reached the table, she thought she heard him say, “It’s not even true anymore,” but she wasn’t sure with how loud it was in the pub.

Once they reached the table and passed out the drinks, she was interrupted from trying to figure out what that exchange had been about by Kassie trying to (not so) subtly get her attention. She kept moving just her eyes over to where Ivory was sitting, like she was trying to say something. Julianne looked over at Ivory, trying to see what Kassie was spazzing out about. Ivory had started to look up by the time Julianne and Sirius had gotten back, but she was very careful not to look at Remus. Every time his hand got anywhere close to hers, she moved it away, either to her hair, her lap, or back to her drink. Once she realized that Julianne was looking at her, she immediately looked down and she put both of her hands around her drink. Julianne looked over at Kassie and the two of them smiled before going back to the conversations around them.

The seven of them managed to spend at least a few hours together in the pub, no one really wanting to brave the cold and the wind outside. Despite the initial awkwardness and Julianne and Kassie’s not-so-subtle attempts to get Ivory closer to Remus, the conversation flowed easily, the seating arrangements sometimes shifting based on who was talking about what and who was getting up to get drinks. At one point, when Julianne returned to the table after grabbing drinks with Kassie, she noticed James throwing glances over to the other side of the room. She followed his gaze and smiled when she realized what he was looking at.

“You know, if you didn’t hex every guy she goes out with, you might actually have a chance,” she said as she passed the drinks out around the table.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, taking one of the drinks she had put down and turning to the conversation Kassie and Remus were having. Julianne shook her head, lifting her drink to take a sip. As she did, she caught Sirius looking between her and James and when he noticed her gaze, he gave her a questioning look. In response, she nodded to where Lily and Callum Lewis were sitting across the pub.

“Ten sickles says he hexes him as we’re leaving,” he said quiet enough so James couldn’t hear.

“Please, I give him twenty minutes,” Julianne countered, glancing back over at James. She could tell that he was making a real effort not to look over at Lily now that she had called him out on it, but his hand kept going to the pocket that she knew he kept his wand in.

“I will take you up on that bet, Meyers,” Sirius said and Julianne looked over at him, smiling. She met his eye and she held for a bit longer than was really necessary before ducking her head and tucking a stray bit of hair behind her ear, joining in on the others’ discussion.

Sure enough, about fifteen minutes later, there was a crash from the other side of the room. When they all turned to look, they saw Callum on the ground, the crash obviously coming from the broken bottles around him. Julianne smiled and turned back to Sirius while everyone else was trying to figure out what was going on.

“So, how much was that?” she said, grinning when he turned to look at her. It took him a second to place what she was saying and as soon as he did, he frowned.

“You don’t know that it was him,” he said, looking down at his watch. She just gave him a look. “He could have just tripped.”

Julianne turned to James. “Hey, James,” she started and before she could say anything else, he cut in.

“Sirius, just give her the money,” he said, looking back over to where Lily was. Julianne turned back to Sirius with a smug smile on her face. She put her elbow on the table and rested her head on her hand.

“That’ll be ten sickles, please,” she said, holding out her hand, the smile still not leaving her face. Sirius heaved a sigh and started digging around in his pockets for the money.

“You know what, I must have left my money in my other pants,” he said, turning to smirk at her. “Have to take a rain check on that.”

Julianne rolled her eyes, pulling her hair tie out of her hair to redo her ponytail. “Like that’ll every happen. You still owe me from the Gryffindor and Slytherin game in November.”

Sirius tilted his head as he put his drink back down. “Damn, I was hoping you would forget that,” he said, a grin still on his face. His eyes traveled to her hands as she gathered her hair back up into a ponytail.

She tightened the ponytail, leaning her elbows on the table when she was finished and putting her hands around her drink. “Please, I’m not forgetting about that until I have my money,” she said, meeting his eyes again.

“Then I guess I’ll have to find some way to repay you,” he said and it was then that she realized how close they had gotten to each other. She didn’t know how she hadn’t noticed before, but she could feel his knee resting against her thigh and if she took her hand off her drink and put it on table, they might as well have been holding hands. She immediately tried to move over subtly, looking back down at the table. As she looked down, she noticed Ivory giving her a strange look and took a sip to avoid meeting her gaze.

After a few more minutes and more than a few shared glances between the girls, Kassie stood up. “Well, fellas, it’s been wonderful, but we have got to go,” she said, looking at Ivory and Julianne to back her up. The two blondes stood up as the four boys glanced around at them.

“Why don’t we come with you?” James offered as they started to put their coats and scarves back on.

“We’re going shopping,” Julianne said, picking up on what Kassie was thinking. She wound her scarf around her neck before buttoning up her coat. “You really want to come?”

“Say no more,” Sirius said, leaning back in his chair. Julianne glanced over at him and met his gaze. He gave her a small smile before the girls exchanged brief goodbyes, walking towards the door to brave the cold.

As soon as they were out the door, Ivory and Kassie looked over at Julianne. “So what was that all about?” Ivory asked as they started walking to Honeydukes.

Julianne glanced up and, realizing that Ivory was talking to her, looked between her and Kassie. “What was what?” she said, opening the door to the sweetshop so they could hurry into the warmth. She started pulling off the scarf she had wrapped around her neck as Kassie and Ivory shared a look.

“Uh, you and Sirius?” Kassie said as they wandered around, trying to decide what to buy. “I’d say there was a bit more flirting than usual. What about you, Ivory?”

“Hmm, definitely,” Ivory said with a grin. Julianne stopped as she was reaching for a block of chocolate, turning to look at the two of them.

“More than usual?” she asked, choosing to ignore what else they were implying. Kassie and Ivory shared another look as Kassie reached for the Licorice Wands. “Would you two stop doing that and just answer my questions?”

Ivory looked back over at Julianne and said, “You really don’t notice that you’re doing it?”

“Half your relationship with him is some sort of flirting from both of you,” Kassie added as they made their way back towards the counter to pay for the sweets. “I mean, it’s only obvious to us because we know you two, but you seriously don’t realize that you’re doing it?” Julianne shook her head and Ivory just gave her a look that said she didn’t buy it.

Kassie laughed as they moved up in the line. “Julianne, it’s a good thing you’re pretty and can play Quidditch.” Julianne shot a glare at Kassie as she paid for her chocolate and waited for the others to buy their sweets.

“Alright, enough about me,” Julianne said as they walked out of the shop and started back to the castle. She turned to Ivory, a grin on her face. “So Remus, huh?” Ivory started blushing furiously and ducked her head, while Kassie and Julianne laughed.


End file.
